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WILLIAM V 

After a mezzotint by Hodges 



THE 

FALL OF THE DUTCH 
REPUBLIC 

BY 
HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1913 






0^ 

3 



COPYRIGHT, I913, BY HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published March igjj 



©CI.A343769 



s. 



TO THE MEMORY 

OF 

MY MOTHER 



^^The best History is but like the art of Rembrandt; it 
casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those 
which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in 
shadow and unseen." 

BusKEN HuET, in Het Land van Rembrandt. 



TO THE READER 

The following conversation is not uncommon: 

The well-intentioned Patron of Arts and Letters 
asks the Author what he is doing. 

"Writing a History." 

"That is good. Very good. A History of what.^^ " 

"The Fall of the Dutch Republic." 

"Splendid! That is what Motley has done, too, 
and we need some new light on the subject. Look 
at it from a modern, up-to-date point of view — 
show us how the People . . . Hold on, now. I am 
wrong. You said, 'The Fall of the Dutch Repub- 
lic'.^ Motley wrote the Rise. Why, I did not know 
that the thing had ever fallen." 

And then, most welcome Reader, it appeared that 
out of a hundred interested inquirers, ninety-nine 
had none but the very vaguest conceptions of the 
adventures of the Dutch Republic from the moment 
it had ceased to be chronicled by the Great Amer- 
ican Historian. Some few, who had taken English 
history in college, had dim recollections of a certain 
William of Orange who as the husband of Queen 
Mary had played some sort of a role in the works of 
the late Lord Macaulay. 

But the untimely death of that famous English 



X TO THE READER 

author made it uncertain, how, when, and where 
said WiUiam had departed from this world. 

As to most students, their stream of knowledge 
about Dutch history starts fresh and bright among 
the heroic deeds of the sixteenth century, follows a 
less impetuous course during the seventeenth, and 
runs itself to death among the dry sands of the 
eighteenth. They are aware of the undeniable fact 
that at the present moment there exists a Kingdom 
of the Netherlands. But what lies between the 
days of William III (of Macaulay fame) and the 
foundation of the modern kingdom, is a subject of 
quite as much speculation as the mediaeval history 
of Greece or China. It has been my intention to 
supply the missing link for the benefit of American 
readers. 

My fellow countrymen are fully informed about 
this subject. At least, they ought to be. Next to 
the excellent general history of the eighteenth cen- 
tury in Professor Blok's History of the Dutch People, 
they have in the special studies of Dr. Colenbrander 
a work which, measured by our deficient human 
standards, is well-nigh perfect. 

For the writing of a book of such scope, the pre- 
sent writer possesses neither the energy nor the pa- 
tience nor the ability. He can only aspire to write 
a short story of the main events which brought 
about the ruin of the old Dutch Republic, in the 
hope that some day a more able pen will write the 
history of this debacle as it deserves to be written. 



TO THE READER xi 

This book, therefore, does not pretend to give 
a finished picture. It is merely a prehminary 
sketch. The Author has faithfully tried to make it 
as short as possible. He has endeavored to omit 
as much as could possibly be discarded without 
spoiling a certain impression which he wanted to 
leave upon his Reader. 

Dates and names, which on the whole do not tell 
most readers anything, have been referred to only 
when necessary. A full set of notes will tell the 
more inquisitive Brethren where they can find the 
grounds upon which the Author has based his opin- 
ions. 

There remains the question of literary style and 
even correct English. 

For the better part of his life the Author has not 
been familiar with the intricacies and peculiarities 
of that curious institution known as the English 
language. A kind friend has hunted through the 
pages of the manuscript and has eradicated the 
more evident solecisms. 

For the remaining semi and entire absurdities, 
the Author begs the Reader's kind indulgence and 
his pardon. 

But before he ends this peroration, allow him one 
more remark. The present work, with all its imper- 
fections, would never have been written if it had 
not been for the friendly encouragement and sup- 
port of a host of kind people, on whom the Author 



xii TO THE READER 

had no claim whatsoever. Since printing is expens- 
ive in this country, he will not try to enumerate 
them in a complete list. But when next in con- 
temporary literature and public print you have 
it clearly demonstrated that your good country is 
going to constitutional dissolution and economic 
ruin, take courage. 

For the Lord must have his own most special 
plans for a country which treats the stranger within 
its gates as well as it has treated the Reader's most 
humble servant, 

Hendrik Willem van Loon. 

The Camp House 
Dublin, N. H.> 31 October, 1912. 



CONTENTS 

I. Political Development 1 

II, Economic and Social Development .... 42 

in. William IV 116 

IV. The Princess Anna 142 

V. The Duke of Brunswick 158 

VI. The American Revolution 174 

VII. The Last English War 217 

VIII. The Patriots 288 

IX. Last Years 873 

Epilogue 400 

Appendix . 409 

Notes 411 

Bibliography 415 

Index 425 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

William V Frontispiece 

After a mezzotint by Hodges. 

The Palace of the Stadholders at the Hague during the 
Annual Fair 100 "^ 

After an engraving by D. Marot. 

Illumination of Amsterdam Town Hall for the State 
Visit of William V and his Wife, May 3, 1768 . . 138 ^ 
After an engraving by S. Fokke. 

William V and the Princess Wilhelmina leave Amsterdam 

AFTER THEIR FiRST OFFICIAL ViSIT, JUNE 4, 1768 . . . 170 

After an engraving by S. Fokke. 

Joan Derck van der Capellen van de Poll . . . 200 ^ 
After an engraving by L. J. Cathelin. 

Dress Parade of the Amsterdam Volunteer Corps called 

"Tot Nut der Schuttert" 250 "^ 

After an engraving by J. S. van der Meer. 

Violent Encounter between Patriotic Militia and Citi- 
zens IN Rotterdam on April 3, 1784 300 '^ 

The Princess Wilhelmina 350 ^^ 

After a bust by M. A. Falconnet. 

Map of the Central Part of the Dutch Republic End Papers 
Drawn by the author. 



THE FALL OF 
THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

CHAPTER I 

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 

In December of the year of our Lord 1794, the re- 
volutionary French armies crossed the frozen rivers 
of Brabant to attack the Dutch Repubhc. During 
the first days of January, 1795, they crossed the 
Maas and the Waal and entered Dutch territory.^ 
Wherever they came, towns and villages fell into 
their hands, and the few fortifications they met were 
surrendered without the firing of a single gun. On 
January 16, the strong town of Utrecht opened its 
gates to the invaders. On the evening of the next 
day, the States General assembled in the Hague de- 
cided that under the circumstances further opposi- 
tion was impracticable and that surrender was the 
only possibility. At midnight of the next day, the 
18th, William V, the last hereditary Stadholder of 
the Republic of the United Netherlands, left the 
country and fled to England. A few weeks more and 
the Republic had ceased to exist. Her place was 
taken by the "Batavian Republic," a political de- 
pendency of victorious France. So, in a few days. 



2 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

a work was destroyed which it had taken centuries 
to build up. 

To the contemporary the end came in no way as 
a surprise. If there was occasion for surprise it was 
in the fact that the Repubhc had managed to exist 
as long as it had. For many years it had been on 
the road towards political and economical bank- 
ruptcy. But the respect which the Republic as a 
rich and well-managed community had enjoyed 
for many centuries had enabled it to survive long 
after its affairs had ceased to be sound. Like many 
another business (and as matter of fact it was little 
more than a large business house with a small ad- 
mixture of politics), it had been living on its old 
reputation, contented to vegetate in peace, striving 
with all its might to put off the day when the true 
state of its affairs should be discovered. 

But now a new power had sprung up in Europe, 
a power which respected neither hereditary rights 
nor old traditions, and which, having put its own 
house in order after its own fashion, had started 
out to bring its own particular salvation to its im- 
mediate neighbors and the world in general, whether 
they wanted it or not. 

And behold, a very little shock and the old es- 
tablished Republic fell to pieces! The board of 
directors with their president at their head fled for 
their lives, and the stockholders permitted them- 
selves to be reorganized upon an entirely new basis. 
So disgusted had the general mass of the public 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 3 

become with their former leaders and their methods 
that they hailed the reorganization with joy and 
loudly welcomed the new era of liberty, equality and 
fraternity, which their new masters had promised. 

In the following pages we shall try to describe 
how all this was possible; how the mighty Repub- 
lic which had once held in its hands the destiny of 
Europe became a smug-living society of "rentiers"; 
how all attempts to instill new blood, new energy, 
and vigor into the decaying body failed through the 
stupidity of those who were called to be the leaders 
of the people; and how it came to pass that depend- 
ency upon France seemed to most citizens prefer- 
able to independence under the old national system 
of government. 

The Republic of the United Seven Netherlands 
had been unique among the states of Europe. Other 
republics had existed before, from the very times of 
Athens and Sparta to the days of Venice and the 
Federation of the Swiss Cantons. Never before, 
however, had there been a republic which had been 
created and was maintained exclusively by the third 
estate — by the middle classes. This origin gave 
the Republic a character which stuck to it until the 
end of its days. It is true, the government soon de- 
veloped into an oligarchy, and even in its best days 
it had nothing in common with a true democracy. 
But the essential fact remains that the Republic 
until its very end was true to its original character, 
and that the oligarchy which ruled it never sue- 



4 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

ceeded in changing itself into an established aris- 
tocracy. 

During the early and the late Middle Ages, the 
different provinces, which later constituted the 
commonwealth, were not in any respects different 
from the rest of Europe. They had this marked ad- 
vantage, that they were situated upon the confines of 
the great German Empire and were therefore spared 
much of the annoyance of the mediaeval struggle 
between German Emperor and Roman Pope. But 
like the whole of Europe of that day, the Low 
Countries were gradually divided into a number of 
duchies, counties, and bishoprics, and witnessed the 
foundation of a number of cities which as seats of 
the local potentates came to some small power and 
influence, though they did not play much of a role. 
Their isolated position and the many large rivers 
and inland seas which divided them from the main- 
land gave them a certain amount of safety, and made 
them familiar with life on the water. At the same 
time, the total absence of raw products of any sort 
forced their surplus population to look for a differ- 
ent occupation from that of farming, with which 
during the Middle Ages the majority of mankind 
was engaged. This occupation they found in trade, 
in carrying goods in their small ships from the Con- 
tinent to England and along the coast of the Baltic. 
When in the thirteenth century the herring left the 
Baltic and came to the North Sea, they also estab- 
lished fisheries. During the Middle Ages, the south- 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 5 

ern part was by far the more prosperous. As early 
as the twelfth century the town of Bruges played a 
role similar to that of London or New York in our 
own day. The northern part, which in sizeand shape 
corresponds to the present Kingdom of Holland, 
was fairly comfortable, but certainly no more. It 
had a few industries, but these worked exclusively 
for home consumption. 

In the Holy Roman Empire, to which they be- 
longed officially, these different little states took 
no interest after the eleventh century. In the 
twelfth century they began to separate themselves 
from their large neighbor in the matter of language. 
This separation made a common sovereign impos- 
sible, and allowed each of the little feudal lords to 
work out his own salvation. Fortunately for the 
country the lord's own salvation and that of his 
subjects did not run in as diametrically opposite 
directions as they usually did during the days of 
feudalism. The country was not favorable for the 
development of petty tyrants. Liberty has always 
followed the shores of the ocean. Peasants in the 
Tyrol or central Germany, when maltreated by 
their masters, had nowhere else to go except to the 
next county, where they might find a worse em- 
ployer than the one they had left at home. In a 
country, open on all sides and surrounded by water, 
the disgruntled subject could sail away and begin 
a new life within the walls of some near-by city. 
These little cities, the result of the moderate amount 



6 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of prosperity caused by trade and commerce, were 
strongholds ^against which more than one small 
potentate broke his neck. Wherefore it behooved 
the small potentate to leave them in peace and 
treat his devoted subjects with some circumspec- 
tion. 

The absence of agricultural life, as known in the 
rest of the world, made an early introduction of the 
economic system possible and brought its benefits 
to the country as a whole. For the feudal master 
could subsist only so long as there was a feudal 
system to support him. The moment the economic 
system of life prevailed over the feudal, his feudal 
lordship commenced to. starve. The only way to 
keep from starvation was by obtaining actual 
money, not butter and beeswax and cattle and the 
hke. This actual money was not to be found among 
the peasants, many of whom never saw a coin dur- 
ing their entire lives. It was to be found only within 
the walls of the cities, and there were two ways in 
which to get it. One was to take the city and steal 
its contents. The other was to offer to the city for 
money what you might have to give it some day for 
nothing. This latter method was the more advan- 
tageous. Gradually the feudal lords, for certain 
considerations of cash-down, sold as many rights 
and privileges as the cities cared to buy. The cities 
put those rights and privileges, duly signed and 
sealed, in a strong-box, and placed the strong-box in 
the tower of the town hall. In the few cases where 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 7 

the town hall has not been burned down, we may 
still see these documents, and from them understand 
how a certain amount of the old Germanic spirit of 
freedom never died out. 

A detailed history of the Northern Lowlands dur- 
ing the Middle Ages may be of interest to the 
specialist; to humanity in general it means little 
more than the mediaeval history of Denmark or 
Corea. There was no essentially Dutch civilization, 
no Dutch school of architecture or music. As for 
painting, there was very little, except in the south, 
where the Flemish School attracted all the young 
talent of the north — attracted it by better pay and 
by a more congenial civilization. 

Up to the middle of the fifteenth century, the 
south had it all its own way. The north was the 
backwoods, the country districts, where people 
took an interest in religious matters and started 
all manner of queer puritanical brotherhoods, long 
after that sort of thing was out of fashion in the 
civilized world. 

During the fifteenth century, the north simply 
went the Way of the rest of the thousands of little 
states that formed the political map of Europe. A 
powerful house of French origin, with the ambition 
of reviving what once had been the inheritance of 
Lothar, the grandson of Charlemagne, started to 
buy, steal, or marry the different little principalities 
between the Meuse and the North Sea; and in little 
more than a century it acquired the majority of 



8 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the little states, and began upon a course of gradual 
amalgamation. To each little duchy or county, or 
whatever it was, was left its own shape and form and 
local government; but the Dukes of Burgundy be- 
came their common head, and replaced the former 
duke or count or lord, and ruled over them through 
their appointed representatives — their governors 
or stadholders. 

At the end of the sixteenth century, the great 
plans of the House of Burgundy collapsed because 
the family had died out. Its inheritance went to 
the House of Hapsburg, which, from a small Swiss 
family of second-rate nobles, had by this time 
worked itself up to a position of great importance 
in Europe. A Hapsburg was Emperor in Germany, 
King of Spain, and King of Hungary, Supreme Ruler 
of all the little states in the Netherlands and of many 
in Italy. 

If we translate its position into modern terms, we 
might say that the House of Hapsburg of the six- 
teenth century held a controlling interest in the 
shipping trust, the food trust, and the railroad 
trust. Most of the world paid it tribute in some 
way or other. Nowadays, the same house holds a 
controlling interest in Austria and in Spain only. 

During the first half of the sixteenth century, the 
head of the house was of exceptional capacities. 
Under normal conditions he would no doubt have 
succeeded in getting his Dutch possessions into such 
shape that a large and united Dutch kingdom might 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 9 

have grown out of it; a combination of present-day 
Belgium and Holland. But the same conditions, 
which in Germany retarded the process of central- 
ization until within the last fifty years, also pre- 
vented the small Dutch states from continuing in 
their normal development. 

The chief cause of this retardation was the Re- 
formation. 

The inhabitants of the Low Countries had al- 
ways been good Catholics. More than that, they 
had been intensely and almost puritanically inter- 
ested in religious matters. The Catholic Church, 
in its struggle with the German Empire for su- 
premacy in political as well as in religious matters, 
had more and more become a worldly institution 
and had gradually lost its old character. To the 
average Latin mind of the sixteenth century the 
Church was a sort of general club to which you be- 
longed as a matter of course, which baptized you 
and which buried you and kept a record of your 
marriage, but which otherwise was not expected 
to interfere with the agreeable pursuits of your daily 
life. You took a sort of polite interest in its estab- 
lished doctrines and went through certain formulas 
at certain times. More was not necessary. But here 
in the north, in the depressing and serious atmos- 
phere of a country lower than sea-level, religion had 
always been taken with a terrible amount of seri- 
ousness. The easy-going and superficial mind of 
the Latin races was a horror to the heavy and 



10 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

plodding mind of the Hollander. He took his re- 
ligion seriously because he took everything in life 
seriously. 

In these countries nothing was (nor is now for 
that matter) passed over lightly — neither the af- 
fairs of the soul nor those of the body. The people 
could not help it. They were made that way. No 
longer was each little state obliged to be forever on 
guard against the attacks of its nearest neighbors. 
Murder and pillaging between rival counties had 
been seriously discouraged. There was no longer 
any demand for interstate warfare, since all the 
states belonged to one master. The cities developed 
rapidly, and the prosperity of their inhabitants in- 
creased out of all proportion to what it had been 
before. Greater prosperity meant greater leisure 
and more time to devote to study. Since the print- 
ing-press had brought books within the reach of 
the well-to-do, reading had become very general. 
It was reading of a solid sort, too, most of the books 
being theological works. Good Latin and Greek 
schools were within reach of anybody who showed 
exceptional ability. 

The inherent desire to get at the real internal 
value of things, rather than to be contented with 
accepting their superficial meaning, made these 
people take a most serious and intense interest in 
the great theological discussion of their day. The 
great spiritual revolution which occurred during 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries meant to the 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 11 

mind of man what the revolution of our own cen- 
tury, in economic matters, may yet mean to our 
material lives. People felt that the life of their souls 
could not go on the way it was then going on, just 
as we, in our day, feel that there is something wrong 
with a system of economics which starves the ma- 
jority without really making the minority happier 
or better. 

During the fifteenth century repeated attempts 
had been made to reform the Church. These at- 
tempts had all failed utterly. During the early part 
of the sixteenth century they were renewed with 
great ardor by the Germans. Gradually and much 
against their own will and their general desires, the 
new reformers were forced to leave the fold of their 
own Church and to establish themselves inde- 
pendently. 

We are very apt to think of the Reformation as a 
sudden great upheaval, a sort of a Chinese revolu- 
tion, to-day this, to-morrow that. In Germany it 
took more than a century before a final and definite 
break occurred. It took quite as long in the Low- 
lands, before it became clear what was going to be 
the definite outcome of the original vague move- 
ment. For half a century, at least, a compromise 
seemed quite possible. But it so happened that the 
Low Countries had as their common ruler King 
Philip II of Spain, who had inherited them from his 
father Charles V, ^who had inherited them from 
his grandmother, Maria of Burgundy. Mr. Motley 



n FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

having done full justice to the character of King 
Philip, it would be sufl&cient to state that, under 
anybody else, less stupidly narrow-minded and less 
bigoted, there would have been a great chance of 
preventing the religious reformation from also be- 
coming a political movement and from preventing 
the political movement from becoming an actual 
rebellion. Revolutions are seldom caused by a ma- 
jority of all the people. The majority of the people 
everywhere and at all times is extremely conserva- 
tive. When outward conditions are such that the 
majority for the moment is forced to give up its in- 
difference and is willing to give silent support to the 
minority, a revolution usually succeeds. So it was 
in this revolution; so it was in England during 
Cromwell's time, in America during the years 1775- 
83, in France during the days of the great Revolu- 
tion. 

The people of the Netherlands were driven into 
open revolt through a combination of circumstances, 
some of a religious and some of a political nature. 
An attempt was made to force upon them a political 
system which was tolerated in Spain, but which no 
more fitted their Dutch nature than the Manchu 
system would have fitted America. The nature of 
the people was of an old Germanic, individualistic 
sort, and instinctively rejected all attempts at try- 
ing to press it into the coUectivistic system of an 
absolute monarchy. 

The old nobility of the land, discontented with 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 13 

the political innovations which deprived them of 
some of their ancient rights and of their former 
privileges, were the first leaders of this vague move- 
ment against the religious and civic reforms being 
introduced by the Spanish king. Soon, however, 
the nobility saw that its chief support in acting 
against the sovereign came from the side of the 
middle classes — from the inhabitants of the cities. 
We cannot expect any class of people to commit 
suicide for the benefit of others. The nobility had 
nothing to expect from the middle classes. It had 
everything to expect from the king. Therefore the 
nobles soon came to an understanding with their 
legitimate sovereign and returned to their old alle- 
giance. The cities were left to their own fate. 

In the north, with the exception of Amsterdam, 
they were now all devoted to the new religion, to the 
doctrines of Martin Luther or to those of Calvin. 
After many years of rebellion, the cities were willing 
to compromise upon political matters, to recognize 
their ruler's right to institute such political innova- 
tions as he thought necessary. But, one and all of 
them, they positively refused to promise to give up 
their new religious convictions. Some of the cities 
of the south which had suffered terribly at the 
hands of the extreme Calvinistic demagogues were 
willing to make a compromise. They returned oflS- 
cially to their old faith, were pardoned, and in the 
future were treated with circumspection. But the 
cities in the seven provinces of the northern part 



14 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

could not do this. They stuck to their demands for 
free worship. When these were flatly refused, they 
were forced to continue the struggle. Either they 
must go forward, whatever the consequences, or 
they must perish. 

Of all the great leaders who played a part during 
these first two decades of the struggle for religious 
independence, only one of great prominence had 
remained faithful to the cause of these seven pro- 
vinces. This was a German prince of eminent rank, 
once a very rich man, but now a pauper. His name 
was William. His rank that of a Count of Nassau 
Dillenburg. He is better known by his higher title 
of a Prince of Orange. Posterity, without any 
foundation for the by-name, has called him Will- 
iam the Silent. Ofl&cially he was the representative 
of the King of Spain in the provinces of Holland, 
Zeeland, and Utrecht, — the Stadholder. 

In character he was everything which Philip was 
not. His eminent abilities as a statesman and an 
organizer, together with his tact and his patience 
in adversity, made him the man around whom 
the whole revolution developed. He was not, like 
Cromwell or Washington, a great military leader. 
As a general his abilities were indeed very mediocre. 
Neither was he at any time the recognized official 
head of the combined opposition. With many of the 
provinces which continued the hopeless struggle, he 
was not even officially connected. He was merely 
the executive head of three provinces, and the work 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 15 

which he did he accompKshed through the sheer 
strength of his personahty. He was the man who, 
quite naturally and without great effort on his 
part, gradually became the personification of those 
ideas which caused the common opposition to the 
Spanish king. Nobody recognized this better than 
did King Philip himself when, in 1579, he offered 
an enormous sum in money and several additional 
rewards in honor to whosoever would murder 
WiUiam. 

The difficulties of William's life during the years 
from 1575 to 1584 were enormous. Broken in 
health, covered with debts, and suffering under the 
loss of his oldest son, who was kept a prisoner in 
Spain, he actually did not have enough to provide 
for the wants of his large family. He passed his days 
in trying to keep the different rebellious provinces 
from flying at one another's throats ; for all the 
time during which they were fighting the common 
enemy they never forgot their petty jealousies of 
each other, and small misunderstandings occurred 
continually. 

Fortunately for their final cause, their condition 
gradually became so precarious that in 1579 they 
were obliged to forget all their different rivalries for 
the time being and were forced into a defensive alli- 
ance. This alliance, concluded in January of 1579, 
has since become known as the Union of Utrecht; 
and it has laid the foundation for the development 
of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, 



16 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

and later for the Kingdom of Holland. From that 
moment on the seven rebellious provinces, while 
retaining their complete provincial autonomy, for 
the purpose of all foreign matters, became as one 
province.^ 

After this step had been taken, it was compara- 
tively an easy matter to reach the logical conclusion 
of this initial action, and in the year 1581 the repre- 
sentatives of the seven provinces solemnly abjured 
their common sovereign, King Philip, as he had 
broken his part of the contract existing between 
ruler and subject, and had actually persecuted his 
subjects, where he ought to have taken care of them 
with fatherly love and foresight.^ 

It was this principle of a contract between king 
and people which was followed up a century later 
by the English when they cut off their sovereign's 
head, and which served, still another hundred years 
afterward, as an example to France and to Amer- 
ica, when the enraged inhabitants of these two 
countries, in France decapitated Louis XVI, and 
in America rebelled successfully against King 
George III. 

Having in this way disposed of one sovereign, the 
new republic was now obhged to find another ; for 
nobody as yet thought of establishing an abso- 
lutely independent democratic state, such as in our 
own day is established once in a while in Portugal, 
Panama, or China. Holland and Zeeland wanted to 
revive the old feudal dignity of count, and wanted to 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 17 

make William a sort of constitutional count of their 
provinces.^ The step would not have been a dif- 
ficult one. The executive powers of the former 
feudal lords of Holland had continued in the Bur- 
gundian princes and were assumed by the Spanish 
kings, who exercised them through their repre- 
sentative, the Stadholder. But the other provinces 
were afraid of Holland's large money-bags and the 
influence which they gave this province in the 
Union. They foresaw that Holland's ruler would 
also become the ruler of the Union. This their 
particularism would not allow, and in order to pre- 
vent it they tried all sorts of experiments with for- 
eign potentates. 

King Philip made the whole question more com- 
plicated by his standing reward of forty thousand 
guilders for William's murder. On the 10th of July, 
1584, this reward was at last won. William was 
murdered in Delft in his own home, and the chances 
of the House of Orange becoming the constitutional 
head of the republic came to naught. For Will- 
iam's oldest son, Maurice, who succeeded him as the 
commander-in-chief of the armies of the Republic, 
lacked all of his father's superior qualities as a 
statesman. It was impossible that this rough-and- 
ready cavalry leader should assume a position 
which required an amount of tact, patience, and 
circumspection almost beyond human endurance. 

Maurice was, therefore, kept at the front, clear- 
ing the Republic's territory of the Spaniards, while 



18 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the experiments with foreign princes were con- 
tinued. These experiments, however, failed, and 
failed completely. Gradually and much against 
their own desires, the seven different provinces were 
forced to recognize the fact that none of their 
neighbors was willing to become their ruler on the 
terms which they were willing to offer. The only 
alternative was that they take the management of 
their own affairs into their own hands. 

The Union of Utrecht, as the only tie which 
bound the different provinces together, now be- 
came a sort of common constitution, something for 
which it had never been intended and for which it 
was not in the least adapted. The estates of the 
seven provinces, as the principal surviving form of 
the old order of things, were obliged to assume the 
direct sovereignty of their states and to take the 
actual government into their own hands. In our 
days the sovereignty would have gone to the 
people, but in the sixteenth century the people as 
such had not yet been invented. They were a vast 
and intangible mass. The estates were their only 
tangible representatives. As such they assumed the 
command of the provinces and of the Union. 

These estates had been in existence for almost two 
centuries.^ Originally they had been a sort of ad- 
visory board which was consulted by the feudal 
lord whenever he needed funds. At first they had 
only consisted of representatives from among the 
clergy and the nobility. Gradually, with the in- 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 19 

crease of their economic importance, the cities 
had been asked to send delegates. The influence of 
the civic members had quickly increased during the 
fifteenth century. During the Reformation the 
clergy had of course disappeared, and their share in 
the estates had been taken over by the cities. This 
meant that the nobility lost most of its power, for 
it was now opposed by two thirds of the total mem- 
bership of the different estates. In many other 
countries, especially in Germany, the share of the 
clergy fell into the hands of the nobility, and meant 
a corresponding loss to the cause of the citizens. 

After the seven provinces had abjured their king, 
the estates remained on the whole very much what 
they had been before. They still were chiefly a con- 
sulting body, composed of a certain number of re- 
presentatives from different cities appointed di- 
rectly by the town council and not in any way 
by the people. In no two provinces were the es- 
tates formed in the same way. The whole system 
was so complicated, and so typical of the Republic 
and its strong particularism, that we shall do well to 
describe it in short terms. 

In Holland there were in all nineteen votes in the 
provincial estates. Eighteen of those votes belonged 
to the eighteen principal cities. One belonged to 
the seven members of the old nobility, who were 
obliged to vote collectively. The cities, therefore, 
had everything their own way. Each one could 
send as many delegates as it liked, but each city 



20 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

had but one vote. As for the small towns and the 
country districts, they were not represented at all. 
The nobility was vaguely expected to look after 
their needs. 

In Zeeland there were seven members of the 
provincial estates and there were seven votes. Six 
of those belonged to the six largest cities, one to 
the nobility. But there was no nobility. Either the 
noble houses had died out or they had remained 
faithful to the Spanish rule and had been dis- 
franchised. The one vote of the old local nobility 
now belonged to the Princes of Orange, who had 
bought the Marquisate of Vlissingen and Veere. 

In Utrecht things were very complicated. This 
was owing to the fact that Utrecht had formerly 
been a bishopric, in which of course the clergy had 
played an unusually large part. The clergy as such 
had disappeared, but as it was found to be impos- 
sible to get out of the intricacies which were left by 
their departure from their ancient possessions in 
cloisters and farms covering a large part of the 
1 province, the vote of the late clergy was continued. 
It now belonged to a number of delegates specially 
appointed by the nobility and the smaller cities. 
The nobility also possessed one vote. The four 
large cities had one vote together. Here we find, 
therefore, that the cities played a much less impor- 
tant role than they did in Holland and Zeeland. j 

The same was true in Gelderland, where the sys- 
tem was even more complicated. This province, a 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 21 

former duchy, was divided into three so-called 
"quarters." Each of these quarters had small 
estates of its own, in each of which there were two 
votes, belonging to the combined cities and to the 
combined nobility. Furthermore, in most of the 
cities there was a body of thirty or forty specially 
selected men who might be consulted by these 
estates upon special occasions. Three times a year 
the three quarters met jointly. However, they 
never deliberated in common. The subjects for dis- 
cussion were brought up in the meeting of the whole, 
but were debated separately, to be voted upon 
again in a joint meeting in which each quarter had 
one vote. 

Overysel had somewhat the same complicated 
form of government. 

Friesland was even worse, having four different 
quarters. One of these quarters consisted of the 
eleven large cities. The other three were again 
subdivided into eleven, ten, and nine sub-quarters. 
A joint meeting of the estates brought together 
more than eighty delegates who, however, had only 
four votes at their disposal, one for each quarter. 
In case of a tie, the Stadholder of the province was 
asked to decide. 

Groningen was divided into two parts, each with 
a vote; one for the city of Groningen and one for 
the surrounding country, which again was divided 
into three quarters, each with'its own direct sub- 
estates. 



22 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Except in the Province of Holland where the 
estates met practically the whole year round and 
where they gradually developed into a sort of par- 
liament, the estates of the other provinces were a 
most clumsy and unmanageable political instru- 
ment. For while the combined cities or the com- 
bined nobility, except in Zeeland, had but one vote 
at their disposal, they could send as many delegates 
as they could afford to send, who before a vote was 
taken were to meet together and then decide upon 
their vote. But it will be easily understood that, for 
example, in Utrecht, where the town of Utrecht 
used to send twenty delegates and the other three 
cities two each, said town of Utrecht had everything 
its own way. In Overysel things were established 
in such a way that a majority of votes could be 
brought about if three cities voted with one noble 
or forty-seven nobles with one city. In Friesland 
practically everybody who was a farmer of some 
independence had a direct influence upon the gov- 
ernment and had a right to be heard in the meetings 
of the sub-quarters. In Groningen the whole town 
council of the town of Groningen were ex-officio 
members of the delegation to the estates. In Zee- 
land some small cities which gradually developed 
into "rotten boroughs" had more individual power 
than Amsterdam, with one eighth of the total 
population of the Republic, had in the Estates of 
Holland. 

To be short, there was no general system of any 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 23 

sort. Each province stuck as closely as possible 
to its ancient clumsy political arrangement and 
strongly opposed any attempts at uniformity. Of 
course, the system was bad, but it had the power 
that comes with centuries of existence. It had de- 
veloped very slowly and it now worked through 
sheer force of habit, just as the absurd system of 
measures and weights works in Anglo-Saxon coun- 
tries because everybody has become accustomed 
to it. The chief disadvantage of the system lay in 
the fact that it made the estates merely a meeting- 
place of the representatives of several independent 
cities who were not expected to pull together; who 
never for a moment forgot their own petty inter- 
ests, and whose great joy at all times was to block 
the plans of their neighbors and rivals. 

Unfortunately the government of the Union as a 
whole was not a whit better. The highest body of 
the central government was the Estates General. 
This body, which met permanently, had been in- 
tended to be both the House of Representatives 
and the Senate in one, with the addition of a few of 
the powers of the Executive. 

Each of the provinces had but one vote, although 
here, too, each could send as many delegates as it 
wished, and could appoint them after its own fash- 
ion. These delegates met like so many Ambassa- 
dors Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary 
from a number of independent sovereign powers, 
who deigned to come together to discuss some 



24 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

matter of common importance, but who intended 
strictly to maintain their own country's full and 
absolute autonomy. The Estates General were 
expected to discuss matters of war and peace, of 
treaties, of army and navy, of reHgion, and of taxa- 
tion. They were also to indicate what foreign policy 
the Union should follow. 

Sometimes, indeed, when all these ambassadors 
happened to agree about some matter of common 
interest, the Estates General might be said to re- 
semble a modern parliament. But only upon such 
rare occasions. Usually there was a difference of 
opinion upon all questions, and unless there was a 
strong man in the Republic who could force his will 
upon the whole community, the majority never felt 
itself bound to obey the decisions of the majority. 
For the high contracting parties of the Union of 
Utrecht, even in that moment of extreme danger, 
had been careful to avoid the institution of a cen- 
tral power which could have turned their old and 
beloved anarchy into a centralized government. 
The spirit of the Middle Ages had been too strong 
upon them. Everything was left to the good will 
of the different provinces, and of this article they 
had very little. 

But there was still a third power in the Republic 
which, with an ill-defined right and prerogative, 
was apt to make things more complicated. This 
third power was the Stadholder.^ Originally the 
representative of the sovereign, the Stadholder, 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 25 

had been the executive of each province. But when 
the sovereign was abjured, it was impossible for the 
provincial estates to make themselves the execu- 
tive of the whole province. They] were too un- 
wieldy a body to do the executive work for which 
they never had been trained. The office of the Stad- 
holder was therefore continued in all of the pro- 
vinces. But what were its direct powers .f* It is very 
difficult to say, because, as time went on and the 
estates grew in independence, they continually 
tried to encroach upon the old rights of the Stad- 
holder, while the Stadholder in turn tried to en- 
croach upon the rights of the estates. 

Nominally the Stadholder, after the sovereign 
had been abjured, was the paid executive and the 
hired servant of the estates. But in many ways 
his power was much more direct and far-reaching 
than that of his nominal masters. When the Stad- 
holder happened to be a strong man, he was apt to 
eclipse his masters entirely. He soon became a very 
undesirable institution in the eyes of the estates, 
and whenever they could do so the provinces tried 
to manage their affairs without 'appointing a stad- 
holder; in which case they drew upon themselves 
the executive powers. In this way we often find 
part of the provinces with a stadholder and part of 
them without one, or a number of provinces sharing 
one stadholder. 

Add to this fact that each province except Zee- 
land had a separate synod to look after the affairs 



26 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC " 

of the Church; had a number of deputy estates to 
look after such affairs as demanded immediate at- 
tention; had separate high courts of justice;'^ that 
there were five different and separate admiralties, 
each working independently of the others, and that 
each province looked after its own finances in its 
own special way; and we ask ourselves how it was 
possible that this heterogeneous form of government 
could subsist as long as it actually did, and could 
even make itself one of the leading powers of Eu- 
rope. The answer to our question, however, is sim- 
ple. In reality the whole thing straightened itself 
out as such things usually do. Legally there was 
no one central head to guide the Republic, no one 
great power which could force its will upon the 
others. But without strong guidance no nation can 
exist: therefore what could not be done legally, was 
done illegally and with great success. 

In the last instance it came down to a very vulgar 
matter of dollars and cents. Holland paid fifty- 
eight per cent of the common funds, and Holland 
ran the Republic. Should any of the other pro- 
vinces refuse to obey its dictates, then Holland, by 
refusing to pay its share of the common expenses, 
could threaten a bankruptcy. In turn, the man or 
the party managing to become supreme in Holland 
was also supreme in the whole of the Republic. It 
may be well to keep this fact in mind during the 
discussion which we shall bring up in later chapters 
of this book. 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 27 

The greatest individual office in the Republic 
was, after all, that of the executive, of the Stad- 
holder. But during the years of warfare against 
Spain, when the Stadholder was usually away from 
the seat of government and out in the field protect^ 
ing the Republic's territory from invasion and clear- 
ing it of the Spaniards, another official, a provincial 
one, managed to acquire for his office vast and im- 
portant powers. That this could happen was in the 
first place owing to the brilliancy of the men who 
were appointed to this office during the first half- 
century of the Republic's existence. This office was 
that of Raadpensionaris of Holland.^ 

Again it is difficult to say what a raadpensionaris 
was. He held so many offices which we now divide 
among a number of men that we cannot translate 
his powers into direct modern equivalents. He at- 
tended the meetings of both the Estates of Holland 
and the Estates General. In the Estates of Hol- 
land he was not only the chairman, but also brought 
out the vote of the nobility. During the first years 
of independence, when Holland on its own initiative 
had organized a diplomatic service, the Raadpen- 
sionaris became the man who directed this service. 
Later on he continued this work, and became prac- 
tically the minister of foreign affairs of the entire 
Republic. The Raadpensionaris was the man who 
was in actual daily contact with all the most im- 
portant bodies of the government, and of course he 
was the man who knew best what was going on 



28 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

everywhere. Perhaps we shall come nearest to the 
truth if we call him President of the House of Re- 
presentatives, Prime Minister, and Foreign Minis- 
ter in one. This great power enabled a strong man 
to become the practical ruler of the Union. 

But in the course of time this office became still 
another thing. The Raadpensionaris of Holland be- 
came the leader of the separatist party, for such we 
can call one of the two large parties in the Republic. 
There were no parties in our sense of the word, with 
conventions and caucuses and bosses and all the 
rest of it. But there were two general modes of 
thought prevalent, and the Raadpensionaris be- 
came the unofficial leader of those who wanted a 
strong decentralized form of government, while the 
Stadholder became the leader of those who saw 
their only salvation in a strong central government, 
in which the Stadholder should be a constitutional 
monarch. 

I have mentioned the fact that the majority of 
the people had nothing to do with the government 
either one way or the other. Then, who were those 
men who made up the different estates and the 
whole large body of town councils, deputy estates, 
admiralty colleges, etc., etc. ? Without exception 
they were members of certain influential families. 
The rule of patrician families was nothing new or 
original to the Republic. It dated back to the Mid- 
dle Ages, when it was imperative that a few strong 
families should have the government in their hands. 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 29 

Wherever this had not been the case, as it was not 
in the large cities of Belgium, continual chaos had 
been the result. During the war with Spain, a few 
families had been tories and had been obliged to 
leave the country after the defeat of their cause. 
Their place was taken by others of conspicuous 
zeal for the new cause. But the system remained 
the same. 

In each city there were a number of families, pro- 
minent through fortune and relationship, which, 
without belonging to the old nobility, were regarded 
as predestined to perpetuate the town government. 
From among these the Stadholder, as chief execu- 
tive, appointed the burgomasters, the town councils, 
and the sheriffs. From among themselves they ap- 
pointed the members to the provincial and general 
estates. From among themselves they appointed 
the directors of the admiralty colleges and the di- 
rectors in every large financial undertaking. They 
formed a close corporation, perpetuating itself, the 
members marrying only among themselves and rig- 
orously keeping out any and all outsiders. After 
generations of probation, a new family might be 
adopted, but even then only with very great dif- 
ficulty. As a class they were called the Regents.^ 

As all-powerful rulers of their respective big or 
small cities, they ran these cities, provinces, and the 
Republic very much as if they were their own priv- 
ate concerns. They were most terribly jealous of 
one another's powers, and each small corporation 



30 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

wanted to be consulted quite as much as its larger 
neighbors. Wherefore it happened that a matter 
which was brought up for discussion in the Estates 
General was referred back to the provincial estates, 
who referred it back to the town councils of the dif- 
ferent cities, who thereupon gave their opinion and 
sent their opinion back to the provincial estates, 
who thereupon forwarded this opinion to the Es- 
tates General, who thereupon might try to come to 
some general conclusions. This method meant that 
all affairs had first to be discussed by some two 
thousand different persons, representing some fifty 
different cities, and that these matters for discus- 
sion were usually half a year under way before they 
returned to the place whence they had started. It 
also meant that nothing could possibly be kept a 
secret, and that the only successful rulers of the Re- 
public were those who, against all laws and usages, 
established a secret^ body of half a dozen persons, 
who, quite illegally and over the heads of all the 
other officials, acted on such important affairs as 
must remain secret for the time being. 

This sort of government, however, strengthen- 
ing itself as time went on, and becoming more and 
more rigid in all its forms, was never popular with 
the masses. The people did not so much mind be- 
ing under the direct rule of a stadholder who was 
also a prince of royal blood. His title was as good as 
any in Europe. He kept a real court and a real life- 
guard. He was the commander-in-chief of the arm- 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 31 

ies of the Union, and if he were a famous general, 
too, as Maurice and his brother happened to be, his 
court became the centre to which young noblemen 
from all over the world flocked to learn their trade. 
He wore a beautiful uniform, and pranced around 
on a horse, surrounded by his suite. His wife was a 
daughter of a royal house. That was something 
tangible. He was the real prince of the people's 
imagination. 

But what sort of respect could the men in the 
street have for the members of the estates .^^ A lot of 
black-coated, white-jaboted citizens whose grand- 
fathers had been green-grocers or brewers! Their 
wives had no greater claim to honor. Money and 
family influence and general circumstances might 
have helped the grandfather out of his class, but his 
neighbors were not going to forget his origin. 

And now, behold, since these folk had come to 
such large power they treated the masses as if they 
did not exist. The mob, the common man, the 
lower people, were the terms used to designate 
ninety-five per cent of the population. The ninety- 
five per cent did not like it, but they were too busy 
with their material affairs and they were too de- 
pendent in an economic way upon the rich classes 
to be able to show their objections. There was 
nothing which resembled our highly modern "class 
warfare." Until fifty years or so ago, most people 
were quite willing to recognize the fact that there 
must be classes, and that all can be happy without 



32 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

envying one another. The average man of the six- 
teenth century was quite willing to leave the gov- 
ernment to their lordships and not be bothered with 
it himself. But when he had to choose between the 
two candidates for the government — between the 
very human and grand seigneury Stadholder, with 
all the paraphernalia of royalty around him, and 
his technical masters, the Estates, with all their 
heavy pomp of rich merchants, then he was sure to 
call" hurray " for the Stadholder and to dismiss their 
High and Mightinesses of the Estates with a pro- 
found but icy bow. Only when the regents pro- 
duced a man of more than exceptional ability, a 
man who under the solid black coat and the white 
ruffles hid the heart of a soldier and showed himself 
a true leader, could they actually run the country. 
When there was no such man, the people turned 
instinctively toward the Stadholder, in whom they 
saw the embodiment of what they considered a 
sovereign ought to be. 

A very short review of the history of the Republic 
will show what we mean. , 

Maurice, the oldest son of William, succeeded his 
father when the latter was murdered ; and for a pe- 
riod of forty years he was practically the dictator of 
the Republic. As a general he made a wonderful 
record. He was the victor in three great pitched 
battles and took thirty-eight walled cities and 
forty-five fortifications, thereby driving the Span- 
iards defiantly from the Republic's territory. As 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT S3 

commander-in-chief of the common army and as 
Stadholder of six of the seven provinces, he was by 
far the most influential and the most powerful man 
in the Republic. 

I Hence he soon got into trouble with the Estates 
of Holland, who feared that his power would de- 
velop along monarchical lines. The leader of the 
opposition was the old Raadpensionaris of Holland, 
Johan van Oldenbarne veldt. The result of the strug- 
gle which ensued is well known. Maurice remained 
victorious and Oldenbarneveldt, after having been 
condemned by a packed tribunal, was put to death. 
In 1625, Maurice died. His brother Frederic 
Henry succeeded him as commander-in-chief and 
also as Stadholder in all of the provinces except 
Friesland. Frederic Henry continued the war with 
Spain quite as successfully as his brother had done. 
But he, also, was too much occupied with military 
affairs to be able to pay much attention to internal 
politics. He did nothing to establish his assumed 
powers upon a legal basis. He ruled the Republic 
because he happened to be the strongest man in 
the whole commonwealth and because there was no 
well-organized opposition. In fact, he was the un- 
crowned king of the Dutch Republic, but in theory 
he was still only the "hired man" of the Estates. 

In 1647, Frederic Henry was succeeded by his 
young son William II. William, educated like a 
crown prince and married to the daughter of 
James II of England, related to all the most power- 



34 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

ful reigning houses of Europe, got into immediate 
trouble with the Estates and more particularly with 
the rich commercial cities headed by Amsterdam. 
He might (but this is mere speculation) have suc- 
ceeded in what his father and uncle had failed to 
do, and might have made himself hereditary ruler 
of the Republic, but he died most unexpectedly and 
without leaving a successor. His son William III 
was born eleven days after his death. 

The Republic was without a stadholder. The 
estates of the provinces immediately used this most 
favorable occasion to draw unto themselves all the 
power formerly invested in the Stadholder. They 
now became representative and executive in one. 
The cities rushed to as complete an independence 
as was possible from provincial supervision. The 
right of appointment to the town council, until then 
invested in the Stadholder, was taken up by the 
town council itself, which thereby became an auto- 
nomous and self-continuing body, practically inde- 
pendent of the provincial estates and ruling its 
city as if it were an independent commonwealth. 

For thirty years the Estates, the Regent fam- 
ilies, ruled the country absolutely. Jan de Witt be- 
came their leader. He now became the Republic's 
dictator as much as the Princes of Orange had been 
before him. He also continued their foreign policy 
and with great success. A statesman of exceptional 
ability, a politician of great cunning, he gradually 
but firmly increased the power of the Regents until 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 35 

it seemed that the House of Orange was doomed 
to be excluded from power and influence in the 
RepubHc forever. When it appeared that the weak 
posthumous child of William II was going to live 
after all and had a very sound mind in a very un- 
sound body, de Witt managed to have several laws 
passed which not only made it impossible for the 
Princes of Orange to occupy the position of Stad- 
holder, but which altogether and for all time abol- 
ished this high office. 

During the middle of the seventeenth century, it 
looked as if the Republic was going to follow the 
example of Venice, and was going to develop into 
a republic governed by a legally instituted aristo- 
cracy. Only one thing prevented the Regents from 
establishing themselves as such: there was no 
standing army. For although Article 8 of the 
Union of Utrecht declared that a general census 
should be taken of all people between the ages of 
eighteen and sixty, in order that a regular militia 
might be established from among them for the de- 
fense of the whole country, no such militia had ever 
been organized. Except in one single province the 
census had never been taken. It was found to be 
infinitely cheaper and more expedient to hire troops 
to do the fighting than to drill a busy and com- 
mercial population for a work for which they had 
neither aptitude nor liking. The army of foreign 
mercenary troops, commanded, however, by Dutch 
officers, many of whom belonged to the nobility of 



36 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the country provinces, who still preferred a military- 
career to business life, was under direct command of 
the Stadholder. He it was who appointed the offi- 
cers, and who as an active officer came into daily 
contact with the men. Naturally he was more popu- 
lar than the members of the Estates, who paid for 
the expenses of the army, but who did so grudgingly, 
and who were forever trying to reduce the cost of 
maintenance as well as the size of the army. When 
there were no stadholders the Estates General be- 
came the direct commanders of the army. But 
then the relation between the two became even 
worse, for no military man ever likes to be con- 
trolled by or to be interfered with by a civilian. 
Therefore, whatever there was left of the Republic's 
armies was openly and avowedly on the side of the 
Princes of Orange and quite as openly and avowedly 
against the Regents. The army was spread over the 
many small towns along the frontier, and there it 
spent its days in cursing its luck and wishing for 
better times. 

Besides the regular army in the service of the 
Estates General, there was yet another armed force 
in the Republic. This consisted of the volunteer 
militia of the different towns. It was something 
between Boston's Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
and a regular police corps. In case of fire and riot, it 
was called upon to maintain order. It also did a 
nominal guard duty on the city walls. Chiefly, how- 
ever, this militia was a pleasant social organization, 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 37 

known to posterity by the famous pictures which 
contemporary painters have made of its members 
attending their excellent dinners or their pleasant 
outings. 

The officers of these militia companies were ap- 
pointed by the town council, and therefore apt to 
belong to the Regent class. The rank and file, how- 
ever, belonged to the large class of tradespeople and 
small shopkeepers. They wore no uniform. When- 
ever the fire-alarm was rung, the men put on a 
colored sash, took a halberd or a gun, and made for 
the site of danger to keep their fellow citizens from 
plundering or from bothering the firemen. Also in 
case of riot they might be called upon to reestablish 
order. Except in the year 1672, when the Republic 
seemed completely lost, the civic militia was never 
called upon to do any actual fighting, and on that 
occasion they proved themselves as useless as un- 
trained volunteers always are. Being economically 
dependent upon the good will of their rich neigh- 
bors, these soldiers could not very well show their 
dislike of the Regents openly. But it was quite 
evident that, in case of a quarrel between Regents 
and people, the citizen-soldiers would not allow 
themselves to become an instrument in the hands of 
the oligarchy. 

In this connection we are led to think of Na- 
poleon's comparison of himself and the Bourbons, 
when he stated that he, as a usurper, needed con- 
stant new victories to maintain himself, while they. 



38 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the Bourbons, as the legitimate House of France, 
were as secure upon their throne in defeat as they 
were in victory. For, taking it all in all, the govern- 
ment of de Witt had not been bad. It is true he had 
neglected the army, in which he felt little interest. 
On the other hand, he had given a great impetus to 
the building of a strong navy, and had successfully 
maintained the glory of the Republic's fleets against 
England and France and Sweden. During the 
twenty years of his reign the Republic reached a 
height of prosperity and a prominence in art and 
science which was never again attained. Through 
his personal example, de Witt introduced a degree 
of honesty and integrity in public affairs which up 
to that time had been sadly lacking, and which 
after his death was as sadly lacking as before his 
rule began. 

It was this very prosperity which allowed de Witt 
to do what he actually did. Everybody was so busy 
looking after his own personal affairs that nobody 
had time to bother about those of the country. A 
strong fleet protected the merchant and his ships 
wherever they went. New industries were devel- 
oped and were encouraged by the Government. 
There was work for everybody and nobody needed 
to be either idle or hungry. In short, all those con- 
ditions of material prosperity prevailed which in 
our own day prevail in America, and which so fully 
occupy the minds of the majority of American 
people that they have neither time nor inclination 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 39 

to bother about the way in which they are being 
governed. 

Therefore, whatever they did the Regents were 
forced to keep within certain bounds. Should their 
methods cause great and general discontent, they 
knew that they were powerless against the mass of 
the people. And here it was that in the year 1672 
they made their mistake. De Witt, whose contempt 
for the masses was supreme, went just a little too 
far. The hatred which he caused by his overbearing 
behavior was intense and was not in the least con- 
fined to the mere rabble. 

When in 1672, through a most unfortunate com- 
bination of circumstances, and not in the least 
through the perfidy of King Charles II of England, 
the Republic had to face a war with France, Eng- 
land, and several German princes, the whole polit- 
ical fabric of de Witt fell to pieces. A sudden thaw 
did more to save the Republic than all its military 
forces had been able to do. A panic spread through- 
out the land. Everywhere the people clamored for 
the appointment of the young Prince of Orange as 
stadholder. Their only salvation, so they claimed, 
lay in this appointment, and they demanded it 
peremptorily and quickly. De Witt was forced to 
give in. William was appointed commander-in- 
chief and was made stadholder, not only of Holland 
but also of four other provinces. Even then the fury 
of the people knew no bounds. Only after de Witt 
and his brother had been dragged from prison and 



40 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

lynched by a mob, which acted with the full ap- 
proval and the assistance of the better classes, did 
peace and quiet return. 

William III, who is well known in history as 
King of England, had less power in the land over 
which he ruled as a monarch than over the country 
where he was only the Stadholder.^" As a matter of 
fact his powers in the Republic were practically 
unlimited. If there ever was a man who could have 
changed the government of the Republic, it was 
William HI. He had the whole of the nation be- 
hind him. Their attitude was: *'We have estab- 
lished you where you can be of permanent benefit 
to our state. Go ahead and we will back you up in 
anything you do." But the truth of the matter is 
that William had not the slightest interest in such 
reforms. History repeated itself. There was a 
change of men but not of methods. On the whole 
the government of de Witt had been less selfish 
than the government of William proved to be. 
W^illiam used the Republic as he used England, and 
as he used everybody he could get in his power, for 
his own special purpose — for the purpose of re- 
sisting the aggressive policy of France and of pre- 
venting the great revival of the Catholic power. 

In order to be successful in this self-imposed task, 
William was willing to adopt any corrupt system of 
politics, either at home or abroad. Whenever he was 
unable to enforce his will by legal methods, he un- 
scrupulously did so by illegal ones. W^ithout any 



POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 41 

delicacy and with great brutality he forced all the 
different elements into line to support him in his 
international policies. That he made the Republic 
exert herself far beyond her real strength was a 
matter of no concern to him. The Republic might 
have gone into bankruptcy, for all he cared. The 
debts of the provinces were increased tremendously, 
the admiralties were compelled to build more ships 
than they ever could hope to pay for, the industries 
of the country were allowed to go to ruin. It mat- 
tered not to the Stadholder as long as the Union 
could be made to pay in one way or the other for his 
wars against France. The general tone of politics 
became worse than it had been under de Witt. 
Power and influence were within reach of those only 
who could gain the ear of the Stadholder or of one of 
his camarilla. When William died in 1702, his task 
was done. France had been held within bounds and 
the famous balance of European power had been 
reestablished. 

But all this had been accomplished at the expense 
of the Republic's financial supremacy. William III 
left no direct successor. The popular attempt to 
improve conditions by the appointment of a stad- 
holder with unlimited power had completely failed. 
Without a murmur the people returned to the gov- 
ernment by the Regents. 



CHAPTER II 

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

On the 12th of April of the year of our Lord 1713, 
the market-place of the town of Utrecht witnessed 
an unusual commotion. Early in the day two small 
cannon had been posted in front of the town hall. 
At exactly ten o'clock in the morning they were 
fired. This meant that the delegates of France, 
Spain, England, Sweden, and the Republic had 
concluded peace — a peace which ended the War 
of the Spanish Succession and which at the same 
time ended the political role of the great Republic. 
After having been one of the leading powers of 
Europe for more than a century, the Republic vol- 
untarily retired from active life among the great 
nations. Her armies were disbanded. Her fleet 
was allowed to rot away in the harbors. Her gen- 
erals and admirals were pensioned off and sent 
home to tend their vegetable gardens. Their places 
were taken by diplomats, long-wigged and well 
provided with money. This money was to serve to 
buy peace. Peace at any cost, even at the cost of 
dishonor, was to be the new creed of the Republic. 
It is true the old prosperity remained, and for 
many decades to come commerce and industry 
were to be quite profitable. But it seems that the 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 43 

"men" had died out. During a whole century we 
look in vain for a single man of more than ordinary 
ability. 

The House of Orange, after having produced in a 
straight line five princes of great prominence, either 
as generals or as statesmen, died out in the direct 
line. Its titles and its dignities were inherited by 
the collateral line of the stadholders of Friesland. 
But neither of the princes who were called to play 
a role during the eighteenth century rose above 
the most mediocre abilities. Both William IV and 
William V were second-rate men ; men of good inten- 
tions but absolutely lacking in physical strength, in 
courage and initiative. 

The long list of great statesmen seems to stop 
abruptly. Their former places are now taken by 
politicians — some clever and unscrupulous, others 
merely unscrupulous; and none of them rising above 
the narrow point of view of their little home towns. 
The Regents are again the rulers of the country. 
But they are no longer the men of the days of de 
Witt. They are a caricature of their ancestors. 
They are no longer men of energy working for some 
definite, albeit selfish, ends. They are fast petrify- 
ing into a class of imitation aristocrats, and they 
retire from active business and allow their capital 
to work for them. 

But the nation as a whole, the men and women, 
who a century before had gone through famine, 
siege, and pestilence rather than submit to a for- 



44 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

eign will and a foreign church; what has become of 
them? They, too, have degenerated; they have 
settled into a large mass of well-to-do and self- 
contented rentiers. Their energy and their enter- 
prise are gone. Their money has been invested. 
Their dividends are expected to keep them in com- 
fort. The seventeenth century was the century of 
the accumulation of wealth; the eighteenth century 
was the century of the enjoyment thereof. 

Several hundred millions of guilders were still 
tied up in trade and foreign commerce. ^^ But in 
addition there was an enormous surplus, which was 
used for investments. The Republic during the 
eighteenth century became the great money- 
lender of the whole world. The Exchange of Am- 
sterdam became the centre of the international 
stock-market. More than 340,000,000 guilders 
were invested in foreign securities, in Europe, in the 
East Indies, in America. A very large part of the 
English national debt was in Dutch hands. More 
than 25,000,000 guilders a year went from England 
to the Republic in the form of dividends alone. 
France had taken 25,000,000; Spain, Russia, 
Sweden, and some smaller German countries had 
taken 30,000,000 guilders. The general banking 
business and exchange, of which Amsterdam had 
become the centre, had taken about 50,000,000. 
More than 140,000,000 were tied up in colonial 
enterprises in the East Indies and in South Amer- 
ica. Millions were invested in city loans and loans to 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 45 

provinces and counties. It was estimated tliat the 
sum of 50,000,000 guilders represented the value 
of the gold and silver and precious stones in the 
possession of the Republic's citizens. This large 
accumulation of wealth in such a short time could 
only have been possible in an age when the capture 
of a single Spanish treasure fleet produced net 
results of some 12,000,000 guilders. 

The standard of interest in the eighteenth cen- 
tury was much higher than that of our own time. 
Twelve per cent was no exception. It will be under- 
stood what a steady stream of dividends flowed into 
this small space of territory, and what a large part 
of its population was allowed a life of "otium cum 
dignitate," with the cutting of coupons as its only 
serious occupation, and allowed to spend its days 
in the contemplation of that famous ode of Hor- 
ace which begins "Beatus ille qui procul nego- 
tiis." 

Yet there was another side to this delightful 
picture. To the national character this heavenly 
rest meant little good. As the Republic had loaned 
money to everybody, it meant that she had to stay 
good friends with everybody. War with England 
or war with France would have meant the immedi- 
ate suspension of a large part of the dividends from 
these countries, and would therefore have been 
most harmful to the general prosperity. What was 
worse, it meant that, no matter with whom the 
Republic got into a fight, she was going to be fought 



46 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

with her own capital. For this reason war with 
another nation had to be avoided at all cost. 

In the second place, all this money invested 
abroad meant a direct loss to the industries at home. 
The cost of living was — and for that matter still is 
— much higher in the prosperous Netherlands than 
in the surrounding countries. The workman here 
had better wages than elsewhere, and as the guilds 
were less strongly developed he had greater liberty 
to look after his own private interests. Moreover, 
the industries were obliged to compete with the 
merchant marine. The merchant marine paid good 
wages, and the industries had to pay more to get the 
men at all. All of this meant an increase in the cost 
of production, which in turn meant a smaller stand- 
ard of interest on the invested capital. Unfortun- 
ately the Hollander of the eighteenth century was 
not patriotic enough to invest at home with a pro- 
spect of four and a half or five per cent, when he 
could get six or seven per cent abroad, in quite as 
safe undertakings. This meant that during the 
course of the century, when competition from abroad 
began to be serious and to affect the Dutch markets, 
the Dutch manufacturers could not increase their 
business as they should have done to meet this new 
competition. 

But greater even than these material considera- 
tions was the moral influence which this new mode 
of things had upon the public in general. Trade and 
industry were beginning to be looked upon as not 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 47 

quite "fashionable." The Regents gradually re- 
tired from business altogether, and lost all touch 
with the rest of the people. Very many of the peo- 
ple who came directly after the Regents in social 
order were just as well-to-do, although they did not 
belong to the governing class. These speedily imi- 
tated their betters and also left business alone. 
Their sons were sent to the universities and were 
made to study jurisprudence as an introduction to 
some polite occupation. The rest of the people be- 
gan to consider this mild fashion of loafing as the 
beau ideal of life. This wholesale retirement from 
business meant that the existing capital was not 
being increased. Yet with the continual increase in 
the cost of living and the gradual introduction of 
new luxuries, larger incomes were more needed 
than ever before in order to keep up with the times. 
There remained but one way in which to increase 
capital except by straightforward labor. This was 
by speculation. Now, we should not like to give 
the impression that the inhabitants of the United 
Netherlands had ever been averse to speculating. 
When Tacitus visited their ancestors, he had re- 
marked, as one of their chief characteristics, that 
they were willing to gamble at any time and for any 
thing they possessed, up to their wives and child- 
ren and their own personal freedom. This gamb- 
ling spirit had never been absent, and it had broken 
loose from time to time in such exaggerated forms 
as the great tulip craze of 1637, or later in a giant 



48 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

exploitation of the Mississippi Bubble. The great 
commercial bodies, such as the India companies, 
had also been built more on solid water than on 
solid stock and had offered wonderful chances for 
some clever speculating. 

Speculating was now, however, becoming re- 
stricted to gambling on the values of the stock- 
market. Next to the Ten Commandments the re- 
ports of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange became 
the guiding spirit of a good many families, who were 
constantly living beyond their incomes and who 
were trying to make both ends meet by some care- 
ful manipulations on 'Change. Then, as now, a 
few clever men, who knew the inside working of the 
thing, made money and made a lot of it. Then, as 
now, the outsider was made to pay for the other 
fellow's luck and lost whatever he had. 

We had occasion to mention the Mississippi Bub- 
ble. When John Law extended his operations to 
the Republic, almost every city and every village 
became involved in the speculation that followed 
(except the careful Regents of Amsterdam). The 
wave of prosperity that followed lasted just long 
enough to make people fond of the luxuries which 
their temporarily increased means allowed them. 
The terrible failure which followed immediately after 
made it all the harder for them to go without those 
luxuries. But the score of families that were ruined 
for all time were soon forgotten for the few lucky 
people who had pulled a fortune out of this gamble. 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 49 

During the latter half of the eighteenth century 
large financial crises came with a horrible regular- 
ity. First of all in '63. Then in '73. This second 
one was followed by the worst of all, that of '81. 
Each crisis, started by some outward cause, was 
made possible by the unsound condition of affairs. 
Its direct result every time was the failure of a 
number of banks. These bank failures, in a com- 
munity of investors, meant ruin to a number of 
private families who by this time had lost all taste 
or aptitude for actual business. If they were pos- 
sessed of a certain amount of political influence, 
they could usually manage to get employment some- 
where in the Indies in the service of the East India 
Company. This was the last resort for failures 
among the best families, and it usually allowed them 
to recover from their past losses by a careful exploit- 
ation of the natives. The small fry, however, the 
little investors, were left high and dry and had to be- 
gin all over again on the economic and social ladder. 

Wall Street — in this case the Stock Exchange 
of Amsterdam — became the highest ruler of the 
land. The stock exchange is no doubt a very valu- 
able servant of a prosperous country. As a master, 
however, it has never yet been a success. 

The greatest source of income to the Republic 
had always been its commerce. Its very existence 
depended upon it. When the English war of 1781 
destroyed this commerce, the Republic was doomed 
and collapsed within a few years. 



50 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

As we have seen before, the inhabitants of the 
Low Countries had been forced first of all into this 
carry ing^ trade, because the absence of raw mate- 
rials made the development of large industries an 
impossibility, while the central position between 
many large nations allowed special facilities for in- 
ternational commerce. But during the sixteenth 
century another great factor had encouraged the 
development of this trade in a measure out of all 
proportion to the size of the country and the num- 
ber of its inhabitants. We mean the fact that after 
the Spanish yoke had been once thrown oiff, the Re- 
pubhc was spared further internal troubles, while 
the surrounding countries were kept in a state of 
constant ferment for another century. 

Germany had suffered from the Thirty Years' 
War, which reduced her population from eighteen 
million to four million, and which destroyed her 
prosperity for at least three centuries. England 
went through a series of civil wars, which seriously 
hampered her normal economic development. In 
France, the first part of the sixteenth century was 
a period of continuous religious wars and of sev- 
eral severe internal disturbances. Spain had been 
ruined by a system of political economy which had 
drained it of its entire gold supply. Portugal, an 
old colonial rival of the Republic, was exhausted 
after the many years of Spanish domination. 

The Republic, on the other hand, when in the year 
1602 it concluded the twelve years' truce with 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 51 

Spain, had its hands comparatively free. Holland 
and Zeeland, the two principal commercial pro- 
vinces, had not suffered directly from the enemy for 
almost twenty years and had been able to develop 
their resources in perfect peace. Except for the 
riot of 1672, which lasted only a few weeks, there 
had been no actual bloodshed in a civil war. There 
had been political and religious struggles, but never 
had the business life of the country been suspended 
while two warring factions were actually fighting 
for the control of the government. 

It is true, that the Republic, during the seven- 
teenth century, had fought several severe wars with 
England, but these wars were fought for economic 
purposes and not for religious or dynastic prin- 
ciples. Since 1600 the Republic had on the whole 
been able to give its entire force towards the de- 
velopment of its trade, commerce, and industries. 
When in 1621 the war with Spain was renewed, the 
Republic suffered no loss but that of the actual 
sums of money with which it paid others to do the 
fighting. On the contrary, the renewed hostilities 
allowed the different trading companies to attack 
the Spanish and Portuguese colonies wherever they 
could, and enabled them to acquire a large share of 
new territory. 

In the matter of religion, the Republic did not 
yet avow any modern ideas of tolerance, and cer- 
tainly she did not openly recognize the existence of 
perfect liberty in all those things which pertain to 



52 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the soul. But neither did she aggressively perse- 
cute all those who in a humble and inconspicuous 
way tried to find salvation by methods different 
from those of the estabHshed Reformed Church. 
Provided the dissenter's methods were not danger- 
ous to the safety of the State, and provided the dis- 
senter did not try to proselytize, he was left abso- 
lutely alone. This made the Repubhc a haven of 
rest for those poor creatures who elsewhere had to 
suffer on account of their religious convictions. 
From all parts of Europe large numbers of people 
fled to Holland. These new citizens soon proved to 
be of great value. Not only did they bring energy 
and resourcefulness in business matters to their 
new home, but often they also brought their capi- 
tal and their credit and put both into the service 
of the Republic's commerce. 

In a previous chapter we have shown how the 
Low Countries had always been a studious sort of 
place, where people took things seriously and felt 
an interest in book-learning. This interest in read- 
ing and studying was also of great value to the 
development of commerce, especially of shipping. 
Foreign languages, even such remote ones as those 
spoken in the Levantine countries, were studied 
carefully. A scientific system of book-keeping did 
away with the older and clumsier methods. The 
whole technique of trade and commerce became 
better and more profitable than the old hit-or-miss 
methods. The art of navigation was studied out to 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 53 

a fine point and was aided by the production of an 
excellent set of atlases and charts. An aptitude for 
navigation, acquired during many centuries of sea- 
faring life, allowed the Hollanders to man their 
ships with half as many sailors as other nations did, 
thereby greatly reducing the cost of equipment. 
At the same time a system of shipbuilding had been 
developed which turned out vessels outlasting all 
foreign products by many years. In all these things 
the Republic was so far ahead of its contemporaries 
that people in any way connected with trade or 
business in general used to go to Holland to study 
its methods, just as in our own days an expert in 
engineering would go to Germany or America. All 
of this, however, is no longer true in the eighteenth 
century. England, towards the end of the sixteenth 
century, had at last come to peace and had started 
upon that career of commercial and colonial expan- 
sion which has lasted into our own days. In France, 
since the days of Colbert, a large system of manu- 
facturing had been developed, while great attention 
was being paid to both the fleet and the colonies. 
Spain was making desperate attempts to reform its 
internal affairs. In Germany,' in certain principal- 
ities and in some of the old Hanse towns, a new and 
more vigorous life began to show signs of the com- 
ing of another day. Sweden had been at last forced 
to discontinue a foreign policy which had done it 
little good and much harm, and was beginning to 
revive from the disastrous wars of Charles XII. Of 



54 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

course, all these things did not happen when the 
clock struck twelve at midnight of December 31, 
1699. In some countries, the awakening came 
within the first twenty years of the century, in 
others much later. 

We wish to give only a general impression of that 
time and show how, during the course of the eight- 
eenth century, one nation after another, which had 
been handicapped in the economic struggle by in- 
ternal disorders, was now beginning to pick up and 
to fight for such a share of the world's business as it 
was entitled to by right of its geographical posi- 
tion, its natural resources, and the number of its 
citizens. Also one after the other of these nations 
discovered that during the century which had gone 
before, when for some reason or other it had been 
incapacitated, the Dutch merchants had quietly 
but not the less effectively monopolized its entire 
trade. 

' On every side there was found to exist a com- 
plete dependence upon the Dutch trader and manu- 
facturer. Now these foreign nations quite natur- 
ally did not Hke this condition of affairs, and they 
tried in every way to free themselves from this 
economic dependence. By every possible means of 
defense, such as a high protective tariff and large 
premiums to native enterprises, foreign nations 
started to combat this Dutch monopoly and tried 
to regain the ground lost by previous generations 
of their citizens. 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 55 

When we read the hundreds of pamphlets which 
during the middle of the eighteenth century drew 
the attention of the Estates to the pitiful condi- 
tion of "business," we are inclined to believe that 
there had actually been a sudden and serious de- 
chne in all the many and varied forms of commer- 
cial activity during the twenty years that had just 
passed. The Dutch merchants had been so accus- 
tomed to their natural monopoly in the carrying 
trade and in a number of industries that any in- 
fringement thereon by a foreign nation, however 
justifiable, was regarded by them as an outrage. 
They forgot that not only had the population of the 
Republic increased and the profits been therefore 
divided among more persons than before, but also 
that only a most exceptional combination of cir- 
cumstances had allowed them to acquire and main- 
tain the position which they were now gradually 
losing. 

It is not our purpose to write down a long string 
of facts regarding the history of the Republic. We 
are endeavoring to make the history of a very dull 
period readable and we shall not annoy our readers 
with many ciphers. But a few figures are necessary 
to show how this gradual change took place. For 
the purpose of a history of business, we can divide 
the eighteenth century roughly into several periods. 

The period from 1700 to 1730 was prosperous — a 
reaction after the bad years of the war with France 
and the war of the Spanish Succession. Home indus- 



56 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

tries flourished and exports filled the ships when 
they were not needed for the carrying business be- 
tween foreign countries. But about 1730, under the 
pressure of foreign competition, the Dutch indus- 
tries began to languish. From 1730 to 1750 was a 
bad time. Then new sources af income having been 
opened, and the war between England and France 
and England and America offering splendid oppor- 
tunities for profitable smuggling, there was a new 
period, which in the whole was favorable. 

But there was no longer a sound basis for this 
prosperity, and when the war with England broke 
out in 1780 it destroyed the last vestiges of Dutch 
commerce so suddenly and so completely that it 
was not until the middle of the nineteenth century 
that a revival was possible. The most valuable 
statistics which we possess for the trade of Holland 
are the registers of the toll in the Sont. The Sont, 
which gave entrance to the Baltic Sea, had always 
been a profitable source of income to Denmark, 
which had imposed a toll upon all ships passing 
through these straits. Now the earliest and the 
most profitable business of the Republic had been 
to carry grain from the Baltic provinces to other 
parts of Europe. Dantzig and Ltibeck and, later 
on, Riga, were the chief ports from which the grain 
was shipped. 

The number of Dutch ships that passed through 
the Sont in 1497 was 567; in 1597, 3908 ships; in 
1697, more than 4000 ships. But from then on, the 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 57 

number goes down. In the middle of the eight- 
eenth century only 3000 passed through; in 1774 
(year after a crisis), 2447 ships. Six years later 
there were 2080 ships. Then comes the war with 
England. In 1781 the number is eleven ships. In 
1782 the carrying trade picked up a bit, but it never 
regained even half of its former size.^^ In this trade 
the largest amount of capital had been invested. 
As the decline was the same all along the line, we 
can imagine what it must have been in the other 
branches of commerce. 

The trade with England (partly goods in transit, 
but mostly exports of homemade manufactures) 
showed a steady decline on the part of the Republic 
with a corresponding increase in the quantity of 
goods imported from Great Britain. During the 
eighteenth century, France was a much better cus- 
tomer than England. France had developed a large 
manufacturing system and wanted to send its pro- 
ducts to its colonies, but it did not possess the 
necessary commercial marine. It was therefore 
obliged to use Dutch ships. Now that the Dutch 
Republic had rivals for the monopoly of the carry- 
ing trade in Danish and Swedish and English ships, 
this unwelcome competition forced her to be much 
more circumspect in her treatment of her old 
customers than she liked to be. In order to keep 
the profitable French business, we see how, during 
the eighteenth century, the Republic is gradually 
driven away from its old friendship with England 



58 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

and is obliged to become the ally of France. All 
during this century we see how political disobedi- 
ence on the part of the Republic is immediately 
punished by France by a threat of economic 
reprisals — the increasing of certain duties or the 
interdict of certain imports. And without fail, the 
Republic has to apologize and to submit to France's 
demands. It could no longer afford to lose any cus- 
tomers. Finally, the Republic was even driven by 
France into the American adventure, which led 
directly to the war with England and the destruc- 
tion of the Republic's commerce. 

As for Spain, the Republic never regained its 
former importance there after the war of the Span- 
ish Succession. ^^ The slave trade with the Spanish 
colonies became an English monopoly in 1713, and 
the Republic gradually lost all its business with the 
Spanish colonies in South America. 

The Russian and the Levantine trade show us the 
same state of affairs. There is not a sudden decline, 
not even a decline within a few years, but other 
nations, especially England, are constantly closely 
pushing the Dutch merchants, and every customer 
whom the Hollander loses is gain for his British 
rivals. During the first years of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, we find almost two hundred ships going from 
Holland to St. Petersburg. Fifty years later, their 
number had decreased by two thirds. In 1795, there 
is only one ship. But in the same year there are 
more than five hundred English ships in that harbor, 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 59 

where a century before the trade had been practi- 
cally a monopoly of the Hollanders. The Levantine 
trade, the trade on the Turkish and Italian coast, 
sometimes shows a temporary small increase, but 
it is invariably followed by many bad years. In 
Turkey the English gradually replaced the Dutch 
merchants until none were left of the latter. 

The same can be said of another form of enter- 
prise which was even older than the carrying trade 
and out of which the carrying trade had actually 
grown. We mean the fisheries. Since during the 
late Middle Ages the herring had left the Baltic 
Sea and had come to live in the Atlantic Ocean and 
in the North Sea, herring fishing had become a 
most important and profitable factor in the life of 
the people along the coast. When in 1380 a Zeeland 
fisherman had invented a way of curing the herring, 
this fish became a great article of export to be con- 
sumed by the Catholic world on all its fast days. 
The small cities in Zeeland and along the border of 
the Zuyderzee had greatly profited by these fish- 
eries, and by means of them they had laid the 
foundations of those fortunes which during a later 
period allowed them to participate in the trade on 
the Baltic and later on to take their share in the East 
and West India Companies. Early in the sixteenth 
century whaling had been added to the herring 
fishing. The fisheries so much impressed foreign 
visitors that they have left us the most exaggerated 
stories about the thousands of ships, with their ten 



60 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

thousands of men and their hundreds of thousands 
of profit.^* 

Now, while the Repubhc had a natural monopoly 
of many things abroad it did not indulge in trading 
monopolies at home. Except for the East India 
Company, there is not a single monopoly in the 
Republic which managed to maintain itself as such 
for any length of time. "Free trade" and *' free- 
dom of action in trade" were the two principles 
which caused the Republic's supremacy. The her- 
ring fisheries, too, were no monopoly, for every city 
and every village sent as many ships as it could — 
subject only to such general rules and regulations 
as the Estates General provided in order to keep the 
fisheries as much as possible in Dutch hands. 

But again, no sooner were the first twenty years 
of the eighteenth century by than we see a slow but 
steady decline in these fisheries. The whalers had 
a very hard time maintaining themselves against 
English and Danish competitors. Germany, Den- 
mark, England, and Sweden, all of them living 
much nearer to the regions where the herring was to 
be found, drove out the Dutch fishermen, who had 
to cross the North Sea before they could reach 
fishing waters. 

In some countries, most particularly in France, 
special laws were formulated which prevented the 
importation of herring which was caught by Dutch 
ships. The government of the Republic tried all 
sorts of remedies. The duties which all the pro- 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 61 

vinces had been in the habit of levying upon the 
fisheries in their time of prosperity were aboHshed.^^ 
This did not prove of any special help. Then an at- 
tempt was made to subsidize the fisheries. A large 
sum was appropriated each year for these subsidies. 
A premium as high as five hundred guilders was 
finally promised to each ship that should go out for 
fishing purposes. Even this did not stay the decline. 
In 1736 there were 219 fishing ships. Ten years 
later the number was only 144. It never went up 
again. The English war put a complete end to it 
for several years. 

But the greatest net profit of all had been derived 
from the colonies, and we must consider their ad- 
ventures more particularly. They are highly illus- 
trative of the general methods employed by the 
Republic. Of all the different trading companies, 
of which there were many during the fifteenth cen- 
tury, only two large ones, formed from combination 
of a number of smaller ones, survived. These were 
the East and West India Companies, and of these 
two, the former played by far the greater role. 
It was a monopoly, and a monopoly which in our 
own day would hardly be tolerated for any length 
of time.^^ It was formed in 1602 with the great 
Raadpensionaris of Holland, van Oldenbarneveldt, 
as its organizer and chief leader. It started out with 
a capital of only 6,500,000 guilders, over half of 
which was subscribed for and paid in by the mer- 
chants of Amsterdam. From the very beginning it 



62 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

prospered. Its stock stood high five years after its 
formation. In fifty years the stock had gone up to 
380. During the eighteenth century it went up to 
570 and even higher than 600. Five years after it 
was founded, the company paid seventy-five per 
cent dividends. But that was only during the first 
years, and was possible only because of a most 
irresponsible method of robbery of the new colonies. 
The average during the hundred and eighty years 
of the company's existence was twenty-one per 
cent. 

We can judge of the sums which this enterprise 
brought into the pockets of the Dutch merchants 
when we consider the fact that upon one share of 
3000 guilders, during a period of eighty years, no 
less than 107,665 guilders were paid in dividends. 
The possession of a few of these shares of 3000 
guilders, which were regularly sold at 18,000 
guilders, would keep an entire family in comfort. 

Now, how was this accomplished? Chiefly 
through a most rigorous maintenance of the com- 
pany's monopoly in spices. This spice trade was of 
such importance that we may again intrude with a 
few figures. In 1632, seven ships returned from 
India loaded with spices. They had cost the com- 
pany about 2,000,000 guilders. They were sold for 
10,000,000. Deduct a million for ships, equipment, 
etc., and we still have a gain greatly surpassing the 
original capital of the company. In the year 1661, 
the fleet returned from India with goods which cost 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 63 

2,000,000 guilders and which sold for 4,000,000 
more. Even in 1672, the worst year of the seven- 
teenth century, the East India Company brought 
more than 40,000,000 guilders worth of merchan- 
dise to the Republic. The company used to buy her 
spices in India for thirty cents a pound. She sold 
them at home for four guilders a pound — a gain of 
twelve hundred per cent. 

An average yearly product of these spices was as 
follows: nutmeg, 300,000 pounds; mace, 100,000 
pounds; and cloves, 300,000 pounds. At the rate as 
given above, we can well understand the profits of 
this trade. And the chief beauty of it all (from the 
point of view of the company) was the fact that it 
could regulate the spice-supply in such a way as to 
keep the prices to the desired height. The company 
was supreme in those islands which alone grew 
spices, and could encourage their production just 
as it could destroy all over-production. When we 
read how whole spice islands were burned out in 
order that the price of nutmeg or mace might be in- 
creased, we feel almost friendly towards our modern 
trusts. 

As to the management of this company, it was 
such that a modern board of directors following its 
example would be in the state's prison in a very 
short while. The Dutch people in commercial as 
well as in political life loved *' committees." No- 
thing was ever done by a single man that could be 
done by a committee of men. We have seen how the 



64 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

whole political fabric of the Union and the province 
consisted of an innumerable number of committees 
and sub-committees. It was the same in all com- 
mercial enterprises, and the East India Company 
was not an exception. There was no single head, no 
director-general, as there is in a modern concern of 
that sort. The company was divided into four 
"chambers." These chambers represented each a 
certain number of stockholders. The largest one 
was that of Amsterdam, which had invested 
3,700,000 guilders. Then came Zeeland with 1,300,- 
000, Hoorn and Enkhuizen with 550,000 and 
250,000 guilders, and Delft and Rotterdam with 
450,000 and 175,000 guilders respectively. 

None of the other cities is mentioned. Therefore, 
although the grant of the East India Company's 
monopoly had been given by the Estates General 
and the company flew the flag of the Union, the 
whole affair remained essentially in the hands of 
Holland and Zeeland. The inhabitants of other 
provinces could own stock individually, but they 
could not exercise any direct influence upon the 
management of the company's affairs. 

The members of each of the four chambers looked 
only after the India business of their own particular 
town, and supervised and equipped the ships which 
each town was allowed to send out, a number which 
was in proportion to the share in the general capi- 
tal. For here as elsewhere the intense particularism 
held sway: a ship which was sent out by Delft or by 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 65 

Hoorn had to return to Delft or to Hoorn. But as 
the company was not only a trading company but 
also a sovereign political body, which in the name 
of the Estates General kept armies and a fleet and 
made war and concluded treaties and acquired ter- 
ritory, it was necessary that some central body 
supervise the general policy of the company. 

There was a general board of directors in which 
Amsterdam was represented by twenty members, 
Zeeland by twelve, the other two cities by seven 
each. But this number of men was too large for 
practical purposes, and the immediate power be- 
came centred in a board of governors, composed of 
seventeen members, the "Messrs. XVII," as they 
were called. In this board Amsterdam was repre- 
sented by eight members; Zeeland had four; the 
other two chambers, each two. The seventeenth 
member was appointed alternately by one of the 
chambers, excluding Amsterdam. The old story 
repeated itself. Both in this board and in the gen- 
eral board of directors, Amsterdam through its 
large capital was supreme and ruled the company as 
it ruled practically everything else in the Republic. 

The Messrs. XVII appointed the governor- 
general of the Indies; they also appointed all the 
other employees, civil, military, and judicial; but 
these were subject to the approval of the Estates 
General. The Estates General, however, let well 
enough alone. Except in the choice of the governor- 
general, they never controlled any of the Indian 



66 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

appointments. As a matter of fact, although they 
were at liberty to do so, they never interfered with 
the affairs of the company at all. As long as the 
company's stock was quoted at 500, and higher, no 
questions were asked. 

But wherein this broad scheme of business did the 
stockholders come in ? We do not mean the direct- 
ors and the high officials, who were all appointed 
from among the Regents, but the small investors, 
the men who owned two to five shares and who had 
no connection with the governing classes. They did 
not come in anywhere. They were allowed to take 
their dividends and to thank their mighty lordships 
for their excellent management which provided 
them with such high returns. As for exercising any 
influence, however small, in the management of the 
affairs in which they were interested, that was en- 
tirely out of the question. Stockholders' meetings 
were unknown. Neither did the company at any 
time of its existence publish an account of its busi- 
ness. By the terms of its original grant, the com- 
pany was obliged to report to the Estates General 
once every ten years and show its balance-sheets. 
The company omitted to do this, the Estates Gen- 
eral did not insist, and the stockholders were en- 
tirely powerless to enforce this stipulation. 

During the first fifty years of the company's 
existence the stockholders made some semblance of 
a fight to get their side represented in the board of 
directors, but to no avail. Their protests were laid 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 67 

upon the table, and as a matter of fact dividends 
were kept so high that most shareholders were quite 
willing not to inquire into the company's methods, 
but merely to content themselves with the results 
of these methods. The secrecy which prevailed 
about the book-keeping and the accounting of the 
company was maintained so rigorously that not 
even minutes of the meetings of the Messrs. XVII 
were kept. To this day we do not know in detail 
how the company was managed. An authentic ac- 
count of their doings would, however, make very 
interesting reading. These directors indulged in the 
most wonderful financial juggling to make both ends 
meet. During the seventeenth century the colonies 
produced enough of everything to keep the div- 
idends high. But during the eighteenth century 
there were years when it would have been impos- 
sible to keep the shares up to their ordinary height 
without borrowing money. In order to keep the 
fact of a less favorable year from the knowledge of 
the people at home, the company used to borrow 
money in India or elsewhere at three times the rate 
of interest of Holland, rather than let the fact that 
money was needed be known at home. 

In India, in its relations with the natives, the 
company was a severe master. This was a matter 
of necessity. Without prompt and stern retribu- 
tion, no people on earth could have founded such a 
large colonial empire. We are not trying to defend 
the company's methods. In the light of our own 



68 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

day they were hardly permissible. In the light of 
their time, however, they compared favorably with 
the colonial methods of the Latin races in that the 
conquered people were not interfered with on ac- 
count of their religion. The company was a trad- 
ing concern and expected to pay dividends as high 
as possible. 

As long as the native allowed these dividends to 
be continued, the company was willing to let the 
native work out his own salvation in his own way. 
It was a very plain business agreement, such as we 
find in our modern industrial undertakings. Only 
the results counted. There was no sentiment 
wasted on anything not directly pertaining to re- 
sults. In order to get money, the company forced 
the native to work. But in order to avert rebellion 
and war on the part of the native, the company 
was obliged to keep within certain bounds. In this 
way a working system was hit upon which did 
fairly well for both parties. 

Now, the men who during the seventeenth cen- 
tury acted as governors-general, and who acted in 
high military and civic capacities in the Indies, 
were without exception strong men with all the 
virtues and the failings of such. During the eight- 
eenth century, however, the management fell more 
and more into the hands of people who, without 
merit, got their position on account of their family 
connections. As we have said before, the Indies 
became the place whither went those who were not 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 69 

wanted at home, either on account of some finan- 
cial business or on account of some undesirable civil 
notoriety. One and all their only idea in crossing 
the Atlantic and Indian Oceans was to improve 
their financial condition. The difference between 
high and low official was chiefly in the larger or 
smaller amount of money which they appropriated 
for themselves. It will be easily understood that 
with such officers the affairs of the company went 
from bad to worse. After 1770 its credit was main- 
tained with great difficulty. After 1780 it was prac- 
tically bankrupt. When in 1795 the old Republic 
fell to pieces, the East India Company was one of 
the first bodies to collapse. Up to the last years, 
however, it was to its stockholders a source of a 
splendid income. The deluge came when the people 
who were to play a role in our history were well 
past middle age. 

The same thing cannot be said of the West India 
Company. ^^ It was founded in 1621, after the 
plans of the East India Company, save that stock- 
holders had a more direct influence upon the com- 
pany's management. Like the East India Com- 
pany it was meant to be a strict monopoly. But 
in this it failed. As we have said before, of all 
the monopolies which at one time or another were 
started in the Republic none proved successful 
except the East India Company. All the others, 
whether trading or fishing or manufacturing was 
the ultimate purpose, failed sooner or later, and 



i/ 



70 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

their place was taken up by enterprises founded 
by private initiative, which curiously enough suc- 
ceeded where the monopoly had failed. The West 
India Company had been started with more capital 
than her East Indian rival. Fully seven millions 
had been subscribed. Amsterdam came first with 
four ninths of the total amount, Zeeland paid in 
two ninths, Rotterdam and Hoorn each one ninth, 
while one ninth went to the provinces of Groningen 
and Friesland. The country provinces were there- 
fore represented in contrast with the East India 
Company, which was entirely in the hands of Hol- 
land and Zeeland. What made the West India 
Company still more an affair of the whole country 
was the fact that the Estates General took 500,000 
guilders worth of stock and the Stadholder, 50,000. 
There were seventy -four directors appointed by the 
Estates from among the stockholders who pos- 
sessed two or more securities of 6000 guilders. 
A committee of nineteen looked after the direct 
management. Eight of the members of this com- 
mittee were appointed by Amsterdam, ten by 
the other four chambers, one by the Estates Gen- 
eral. 

The company received a monopoly of the trade 
on the west coast of Africa, the east coast of Amer- 
ica, and all of the islands between and to the south 
of those two coasts. This means that the West 
India Company was to consider the Atlantic Ocean 
as her own private possession in the same way that 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 71 

the East India Company was to have full sway in 
the Indian Ocean. The salt trade was also made a 
monopoly of this company, and a very profitable 
one it proved to be. 

From the very first, however, the West India Com- 
pany was unsuccessful. The East India Company 
had everything its own way. It found that the first 
rough pioneering work in the Indies had already 
been done by the Spaniards and the Portuguese. 
After it had once driven them out of their strong- 
holds, it found a native population with a fair 
amount of civilization, quite accustomed to do work 
in the fields and on the plantations. 

The possessions of the West India Company 
also lay under the equator, and as far as their geo- 
graphical situation was concerned they might have 
produced all tropical plants. Here, however, there 
was no civilized native population available to do 
the necessary work. The native had first to be 
caught and then had to be trained to do regular 
work, and the plantations had to be laid out and 
some twenty years would have to go by before 
there would be any practical results. But the Dutch 
trading companies of that day worked for immedi- 
ate results and not for the possible benefit of future 
generations. The idea of starting colonies which 
were to enrich their grandchildren was not in the 
least agreeable to the Dutch stockholders. They 
did not colonize to get a hinterland for the products 
of the mother country. They colonized to get div- 



72 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

idends out of the products of their newly conquered 
territory. 

Even if they had wanted to colonize in the mod- 
ern sense of the word, there would not have been 
people enough to populate such colonies. The few 
million people in the entire Republic were hardly 
sufficient to look after all the work that needed to 
be done at home. There was no inducement for any 
of them to go into a far-away and uncivilized coun- 
try to make a living when home provided a decent 
living at little cost. This explains the impossibil- 
ity of getting the colony of New Amsterdam under 
way. There were not emigrants enough to make 
the thing successful. It was not that the Hollanders 
of the seventeenth century did not see a future in 
the settlement along the Hudson. But the country 
had undertaken to do a great deal more than it 
was able to do, and hence it failed in those places 
where the immediate returns were smallest. The 
East Indies proved to be the most productive part 
of the world in which Dutch capital was interested. 
Hence the East India colonies were exploited with 
care and patience. The West Indies were merely 
second choice, and as such were left to get along as 
best they could without active support. The West 
India Company had some good days. But they 
were caused by what, for lack of another word, we 
will call legitimate piracy. 

Spanish treasure fleets and Portuguese colonies, 
whenever taken by the company's armed forces, 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 73 

caused sudden and spasmodic intervals of super- 
abundant dividends. But there was no steady and 
enduring profit, and these abnormal windfalls could 
not prevent the company from becoming a bank- 
rupt as early as 1674. Now it was not the policy of 
the Regents to let anything in which they were 
ofiicially interested (in this case quite officially 
through the share which the Estates General had in 
the undertaking) go to the bankruptcy court. Be- 
fore it was quite so bad as all that, the company 
was reorganized and was continued under a new 
grant. 

But this new grant meant practically the end of 
her existence as a monopoly. It recognized the fact 
that monopoly, in that part of the world, at least, 
was a failure. It is true the company w^as still al- 
lowed the exclusive trading privilege on the west 
coast of Africa, the West Indian Islands, and Suri- 
nam, Essequibo, Berbice, and Curagao, but it was 
not able to maintain its exclusive rights. Several 
of these colonies in South America had been settled 
before the West India Company was founded, and 
when, by right of its original grant, the company 
claimed all of these settlements, the old owners 
had objected so strenuously that the company was 
obliged to compromise. To make things more 
complicated, these colonies were captured by the 
French and the English, and were recaptured by 
the Dutch several times. 

The final settlement of the difficulty was typical 



74 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of the methods of the Republic with her eternal 
committees and sub-committees and her general 
patchwork. The colony of Surinam, after years of 
quarreling between the company and the Estates 
of Zeeland, which claimed that they were the orig- 
inal possessors thereof and had previous rights, was 
sold by the Estates of Zeeland to the West India 
Company. The amount to be paid was 260,000 
guilders. The company, however, could not obtain 
such a large amount of cash, and sold one third of 
its new purchase to Amsterdam and one third to 
an Amsterdam merchant, Cornells Aerssen. 

Aerssen sailed across the ocean and settled down 
in his new domains, but after five years' residence, 
in the year of our Lord 1688, he was murdered by his 
own soldiers. His possessions were inherited by 
his family, who sold out to Amsterdam for 700,000 
guilders (original cost 70,000), and, therefore, dur- 
ing the last half of the eighteenth century, Amster- 
dam owned and immediately controlled two thirds 
of this valuable colony. It contained some four 
hundred plantations, on which more than thirty 
thousand slaves were kept busy, and it exported 
millions of guilders worth of cocoa, coffee, sugar, 
and cotton, and remained a steady source of income 
to the carrying trade. 

Essequibo had very much the same sort of history. 
Here, too, the Estates of Zeeland claimed previous 
right. Finally the Estates of Zeeland officially re- 
cognized the supreme authority of the company, 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 75 

but the company allowed the colony to remain 
under the direct control of the Estates of Zeeland. 

Berbice had been directly settled by a single firm 
of Flushing merchants. They remained in control 
of their possession, but finally they agreed to pay 
the company five hundred and seventy -five guilders 
on each ship which was used in the trade. 

The smaller islands in the Caribbean Sea, through 
lack of water and of soil, produced nothing, but 
they were extremely valuable as storehouses and 
bases of operations for Dutch smugglers. As such 
they were used by all Dutch merchants, and the 
monopoly of the company could not be maintained 
here either, for the company as an official body 
could not very well indulge in an illicit trade of this 
sort. Whenever complaints reached the Estates 
General, they preferred to be able to answer that 
the trade on these islands, being practically free 
and open to all comers, it was extremely difficult 
for them to stop the smuggling. 

Only one real monopoly remained in the posses- 
sion of the company during the eighteenth century. 
This was that of the slave trade, and it enabled the 
directors to pay from three to four per cent divi- 
dend on the invested capital. Otherwise during the 
eighteenth century the company had an uneventful 
existence, while private initiative opened up her 
territory and made large profits. 

Right here it may be well to point out the loss 
which several parts of the country suffered through 



76 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the slow but gradual decline in all these branches 
of commerce, fisheries, and the carrying trade. 
Some parts of Holland, especially the region along 
the Zaan, a short waterway connecting Amsterdam 
with the centre of the province of North Holland, 
depended for their very existence upon shipbuild- 
ing. In these parts the ships were built and the art- 
icles necessary for their equipment were manufac- 
tured. And it was here that the imported goods 
were prepared for exportation to foreign parts. 

Since in 1596 the first planing-mill had been 
built, the power of the wind, always present in this 
low and flat part of the country, was used for all 
sorts of industrial enterprises. Wood from Scandi- 
navia and the Black Forest was here sawed and 
planed and changed into small but fast ships. Rope- 
walks, tar-sheds, sail-yards, net-factories, carpen- 
ter-shops turned out the many different articles 
necessary for the merchantmen and the fishing- 
boats. And after the different ships returned to the 
Fatherland, the herring had to be salted, and the 
blubber had to be boiled, and the rice had to be 
peeled, and all this was done right here where an 
abundance of canals made transportation cheap 
and easy. 
/ But when the fisheries began to lose their import- 
ance, and the trading companies began to use fewer 
ships and rarely built new ones, all these smaller in- 
dustries connected with shipbuilding began to suffer, 
and the once prosperous region grew quiet. Not 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 77 

that it ever suffered actual poverty. But those who 
saw that the profits steadily diminished preferred 
to go out of a losing business; they reinvested their 
savings, and on the place where once their busy fac- 
tory had stood, they now built a comfortable house 
and spent their days in agreeable quiet rather than 
in active work. 

It took Gibbon thousands of pages to describe 
approximately the decline of the Roman Empire. 
The Dutch Republic was much smaller, but its de- 
cline was such a complicated matter that we cannot 
hope to do it justice within these few pages. We 
can only hope to make clear to our readers that 
there was a very gradual and very slow diminishing 
of prosperity, caused partly by changing economic 
circumstances, but most of all by a change in the 
character of the people. We must keep in mind 
that this sort of thing never happens suddenly. It 
was a very slow process which during many decades 
can be hardly noticed at all. Only in one particu- 
lar case can we see a sudden and abrupt change. 
Unfortunately this abrupt decline occurred where it 
did most harm, and where it caused the greatest 
damage to the Republic's prestige as one of the 
leading nations of Europe. We mean the utter neg- 
lect of the fleet after the year 1715.^^ 

During the last years of the seventeenth century 
the Republic had maintained a fleet of one hundred 
and twenty ships, ninety of which were ships of the 
line. Fifty years later, there were less than fifty 



1^ 



v/ 

78 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

ships and only a dozen of those were of any value. 
In 1696, the Republic had eight ships of the then 
Dreadnought class of more than ninety guns. In 
1741, it possessed only one of this type; this was 
forty -two years old and perfectly useless. Thirty 
years later, when the size of the ships had again 
greatly increased, and when England and France 
had each two, and Spain one ship of more than one 
hundred guns and more than nine hundred men 
equipage, and had several ships of more than eighty 
guns, the Republic possessed four ships of seventy 
cannon, some of which were nearly a century old 
and had no fighting value at all. Without adequate 
means of defending herself on the ocean, the Re- 
public was entirely at the mercy of all of her com- 
mercial rivals, and was bound to lose ground even 
if her merchants had been of superlative ability. 

What had caused this sudden change in policy? 
There were several reasons. Again it was a ques- 
tion not only of money but also of men. Both de 
Witt and William III had been immensely inter- 
ested in maintaining a strong fleet. De Witt by 
the powers which he had usurped, William by the 
powers with which he had been duly invested, had 
forced the admiralties to build ships and had forced 
the provinces to pay for the building. The country 
provinces paid their share under protest, but they 
did pay. But no sooner was William dead than in- 
ternal political anarchy returned, and the provinces 
quietly refused to produce the funds necessary for 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 79 

the maintenance and increase of the fleet. As we 
have tried to show before, the Estates General were 
no parHament where the desirabihty of a strong 
fleet could be debated and where the majority 
could enforce its opinion upon the whole country. 
As long as there was no man in Holland strong 
enough to bully the other provinces into obedience, 
each province stuck closely to its own particular in- 
terests and refused to contribute a penny to matters 
of general interest. 

It was the same with the admiralties. The five 
admiralties of the Republic were operated inde- 
pendently of each other. When there was a stad- 
holder he was their common chairman. As such, he 
could lay down a general policy and enforce a cer- 
tain amount of cooperation between the different 
parts. The moment this general chairman disap- 
peared, each admiralty refused to act beyond its 
own limits. The old disorder returned and the fleet 
suffered accordingly. 

The long wars during the last years of the seven- 
teenth century had caused vast expenditures. Be- 
fore the war was definitely over, William had died 
and the supply of funds from the provinces had 
stopped abruptly. As a result the admiralties faced 
immediate bankruptcy. ^^ A certain amount of the 
duties on imports and exports which was put aside 
for their maintenance did not suffice to keep them 
solvent. When between 1706 and 1711 the country 
provinces did not pay a single penny for the fleet. 



y 

80 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the whole burden of maintaining it fell upon Hol- 
land and Zeeland. These two provinces, however, 
could not alone continue to produce the necessary- 
funds. As the war was still going on and as the 
ships had to be kept on the high seas, the admiral- 
ties were allowed to borrow money, which some 
patriots were willing to let them have for the con- 
sideration of nine per cent. But even after large 
sums had been borrowed, the three admiralties of 
Holland alone, at the close of the War of the Span- 
ish Succession, were in debt to the amount of ten 
million guilders. No sooner was the war over than 
even Holland and Zeeland lost their interest in the 
fleet. The officers and men were dismissed and 
went into civil life or emigrated to other countries 
and took service in some solvent foreign navy. All 
sorts of scandals occurred when officers, unable to 
pay their debts, were put in prison. 

Holland, and especially the town of Amsterdam, 
managed to keep their admiralties out of actual 
bankruptcy, but that was all they could do. From 
1713 to 1770, for a period of fifty-seven years, 
the other six provinces did not pay a cent towards 
maintaining the fleet. 

Here are a few examples of what happened dur- 
ing the eighteenth century. In 1721, the admiralty 
of North Holland possessed just three ships, two of 
which were twenty and thirty years old respectively. 
Between 1713 and 1746, the admiralty of Friesland 
built one small ship. The admiralty of Rotterdam, 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 81 

between 1713 and 1725, built nothing at all and 
neglected her old ships. Zeeland ^during forty-six 
years, between 1700 and 1746, built four small 
ships without any fighting value. Amsterdam alone, 
supported by the Estates of Holland, maintained 
half a dozen ships which could be used to protect 
her merchantmen from African pirates, but which 
would not have counted in time of war. Whatever 
ships remained from former days were allowed to 
lie in the harbor and gradually rot away. The naval 
career, once sought after eagerly, fell into contempt. 
There was no chance of promotion. There was not 
even a certainty of regular pay. 

Finally the condition of the fleet grew so bad 
that the Republic, once the principal seafaring na- 
tion, had to open its naval service to foreigners in 
order to get enough officers. Time and again the 
weakness of the Dutch fleet was brought home in a 
most humiliating manner. The Dutch merchant- 
men in the Atlantic and the Dutch fishing-boats in 
the North Sea were exposed to search and capture 
by anybody that would take the trouble to stop 
them. England, which had always maintained her 
right to search ships for contraband of war, held 
up Dutch ships continually, whether there was a 
war or whether there was peace. The pirates of the 
Algerian coast had to be bribed to leave the Dutch 
ships alone. In the West Indies pirates took away 
millions of guilders' worth of Dutch goods. 
- The merchants and the traders complained, com- 



i^ 



82 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

plained often and complained loudly. Sometimes 
they sent petitions to the Estates General and later, 
when there was again a stadholder, they sent peti- 
tions to the Stadholder. Invariably the answer was 
that the matter would be taken under considera- 
tion. The time necessary for such "consideration " 
often lasted as long as five whole years, and even 
then the answer was evasive. At no time during 
the entire century was a serious attempt made to 
reform the fleet and make it efficient. Unwilling to 
assert her good right by the strength of her army 
and her fleet, the Republic had no just cause to 
complain that rival nations had destroyed her pro- 
sperity. As a matter of fact she committed suicide. 
This picture, however, which, with the help of 
statistics and year-books, we are now able to draw, 
was in no way so clear to our ancestors themselves. 
Indeed, to those who enjoyed the leisurely life of 
the well-to-do rentier, and who felt that he lived 
in a country enjoying superlative benefits (the re- 
wards which Heaven bestowed upon so much civic 
virtue), it seemed as if the golden age had at last 
arrived and that no improvement could be made. 
What did it matter that a few discontented mer- 
chants were getting up petitions about this and 
about that, and were asking for a protective system 
(a protective system in the very stronghold of free 
trade!), and that rather strenuous and very doubt- 
ful methods had to be used to keep the East India 
Company going? Merchants had always been com- 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 83 

plaining even during good times, and the East 
India Company had never been a model of com- 
mercial honesty. 

At least, during the first seventy years 'of the 
century the people at large worried no more about 
those increasing signs of decline, than people in 
America worry because there are twelve thousand 
failures a year and because part of the country is 
declaring most solemnly that without further pro- 
tection it is doomed to immediate and utter failure. 
The Hollander of the eighteenth century took what- 
ever was offered him with a grateful heart, and 
worried not about the day after to-morrow when 
the day itself provided him with so much comfort.^" 

For let it be known that the Republic was essen- 
tially a "comfortable" place to live in. Since 1672 
no foreign enemy had threatened its territory or 
had occupied any part thereof. The country at 
large was safe. There was no danger of robbers 
or brigands anywhere. The picturesque highway- 
men of the good old days in England found no 
equivalents in the Low Countries. The country 
was densely populated, and the road to the gallows, 
under the strict rule of the Regents, was a very 
short one. The class of beggars and the dilap- 
idated stragglers leftover from the war with Spain, 
which had once served as models to Rembrandt 
and to many of his fellow painters of the seven- 
teenth century, had entirely disappeared. The 
habit of carrying arms was given up as useless and 



84 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

a little ridiculous. This general safety allowed an 
excellent system of communication between the 
different parts of the country. The foreigner who 
made his "voyage de Hollande" never omitted to 
wonder at the ease and comfort of traveling in the 
Republic. The country roads in the eastern pro- 
vinces, except the chief ones leading to Hamburg, 
Cologne, and Brussels, were little better than those 
elsewhere in Europe. In Holland and Zeeland and 
Friesland, however, with their intricate system of 
canals and their dozens of commercial cities which 
demanded rapid ways of communication, there had 
developed a system of canal boats which never 
failed to elicit the admiration of the distinguished 
foreigner who honored the country with his pre- 
sence. Indeed, the comfortable and regularly run- 
ning canal boat never failed to inspire him with that 
enthusiasm which we now feel at our first glimpse 
of the American Limited Express. Perhaps it was 
the regularity which struck them as most admir- 
able. Except in the case of ice the canal boat ran 
as regularly as a train. It did not depend upon 
the weather or upon the wind or the condition of the 
roads. In storms or rain a patient horse pulled the 
boat as steadily as in the most beautiful weather. 
Those who wish for particulars I would refer to the 
guide-books of the day, which give time-tables and 
prices of tickets, and compare the advantages of 
the different companies. 

Just as an example of how well the service was 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 85 

arranged, we may mention that, whereas in our 
own day there are twenty-four trains daily between 
Delft and Rotterdam, there were then sixteen 
boats. Of course, the train now does the distance in 
twenty minutes and the boats took five hours. But 
this was of no great importance in a period which 
knew not of our hurry, when men cared more for a 
comfortable pipe in the cabin of the canal boat and 
a leisurely talk about the affairs of the world than 
about a street-car strap and the latest headlines. 

The customary mediaeval annoyances of travel, 
which often forced people to take a most circuitous 
route because, in the year of our Lord so-and-so- 
much, some little city had managed to obtain 
such-and-such a little privilege, had been quite as 
apparent in the Republic as elsewhere. But before 
the pressure of the needs of business these annoy- 
ances had gradually disappeared and the twelfth 
century was no longer allowed to hold up the eight- 
eenth. By the end of the eighteenth century, 
taking the Hague, the seat of government, as the 
centre, we find the following schedules: to Amster- 
dam, ten hours; Haarlem, eight hours; Leiden, two 
and a half; Delft, one; and Rotterdam, six — which 
goes to show that the eternal delay in the transac- 
tion of all political matters in the Republic was cer- 
tainly not due to the long distances. Indeed, what- 
ever happened in the capital of the country could 
be known the very same day in the most prominent 
cities, and within three days it could be known 



86 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

even in the remote parts of the country; for there 
was an excellent communication between Hol- 
land and the northern provinces through a regular 
service of boats plying between Amsterdam and 
Lemmer, a village in Friesland. The distance was 
covered in ten hours, and the boats connected 
directly with the canal boats for Leeuwarden and 
the north. 

As for the eastern provinces, Germany, and the 
east of Europe, they were reached by way of 
Utrecht. This city, eight hours' distance from 
Amsterdam, was then, as now, the centre of the 
road system of the country. It was a sort of clear- 
ing-house for all the news which went from the east 
of Europe to Holland, and as such it was the Re- 
public's best-posted city on all domestic and foreign 
news. The states to the south, in particular Bel- 
gium and France, were reached by way of Antwerp, 
with which city Rotterdam maintained direct con- 
nections — first by water as far as the Moerdyk 
and then by diligence through the province of 
Brabant. 

The connection with England was made by way 
of Hellevoetsluis, a port on the island of Voorne in 
the southern part of Holland. From Rotterdam 
this city was reached by water in eight hours. The 
packets for England sailed three times a week, and 
reached England within a day. 

The connections with India depended upon the 
merchants that happened to be sent out. During the 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 87 

last part of the eighteenth century a number of 
small but fast ships were built which were intended 
to make the trip between Holland and Batavia 
in ten months, but before the service could be well 
regulated, the East India Company failed. 

As to America, the West India Company's ships 
took whatever passengers there were for the South 
American colonies. Those who had business with 
North America, and they were very few, had to 
travel by way of England. Plans of a regular serv- 
ice between Amsterdam and Boston were consid- 
ered, but never went further than the preliminaries. 

All in all, while from our point of view there was 
room for improvement, the system of transporta- 
tion, especially when compared with that in other 
countries, was far ahead of its time, and allowed a 
quick and safe intercourse between the different 
parts of the country and those parts of the world 
with which one was likely to do business. 

In connection with the system of transportation 
the postal system of the Republic had been able to 
develop early. It is unnecessary to say that this 
postal system was not under direct control of the 
Estates General. ^^ Usually it was maintained by 
the cities themselves, which gave the privilege of 
carrying their mail to some person or some com- 
pany. Each company worked as much for its own 
interest as an American private telephone or ex- 
press company. But while the final end was a self- 
ish one, and every postal company was only trying 



1/ 

88 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

to make as much profit out of the system as it pos- 
sibly could, the indirect result was a great benefit to 
/ the people in general. Private initiative and com- 
petitive companies may not be ideal institutions; 
still they often perform a service which but for them 
would not be performed at all. 

The system, like everything else, had reached its 
greatest development in Holland and Zeeland, 
where the commercial cities had instituted a mes- 
senger service as early as the fifteenth century. 
The great difficulty in establishing such a system 
was the opposition which came from small cities 
and villages, situated on the route between the 
large towns, each of which tried to get some "rake- 
off" by holding up the large postal company that 
wanted to cross its territory. 

During the seventeenth century, however, this 
disorganized system, in which each party looked 
after its own interests and tried to ruin its neighbor, 
was found to be detrimental to good service and 
gradually the public began to demand reforms. 
But reforms were slow to come. The city govern- 
ments usually drew too much profit out of the sys- 
tem, such as it was, to favor a change. Above all, 
the city governments discouraged the introduction 
of a governmental postal system. It was only after 
the uprising of 1748 that the new Stadholder was 
made Postmaster-General, and that it was de- 
cided that the revenue from the postal system 
should go into the provincial treasury and not into 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 89 

the pockets of the Regents, who until then had 
given away the privilege to their political friends. 

It is impossible here to give a list of the hundreds 
of different postal routes, or the combinations of 
routes, which came into usage during the eight- 
eenth century. We merely wish to draw attention 
to the fact that each person who was not directly 
poor could avail himself of a system which would 
bring his letters to any place within the Republic 
in less than five days and between the large cities 
in less than a single day, at the cost of approximately 
fourpence, and which would deliver his mail in Ham- \y 
burg, Paris, or London within a week and for only 
twelvepence. 

In Alfen, a little village in the heart of Holland, 
where five of the principal postal routes came to- 
gether, a sort of clearing-house was established, 
and here the letters from abroad and from the 
home cities were collected and sorted. Amsterdam, 
with its great interest in the northern trade, had 
had regular communication with Hamburg and the 
Swedish and Baltic cities as early as 1606. The Eng- 
lish mail, during the eighteenth century, went twice 
a week by way of Briel and Hellevoetsluis, and was 
constantly being improved upon, the demand for 
speed causing many new'shorter routes to be taken. 

The French mail was a matter of constant dif- 
ficulty because it had to cross Belgium, which as 
part of Austria was then reserved for the Imperial 
Mail-Carriers, the Princes of Taxis. Their High- 



90 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

nesses were forever in trouble with the RepubHc 
about the amount which they thought they were 
entitled to for allowing the Dutch mail to be car- 
ried over their exclusive territory, — a quarrel 
which was never definitely settled, but was allowed 
to drag on while temporary compromises were 
being made. The mail service for France and Spain 
and Italy, however, did not suffer under these dis- 
putes, but was so regularly maintained that during 
the eighteenth century a great many Dutch mer- 
chants kept their ships continually in the Mediter- 
ranean, where they did carrying service Ibetween 
the different southern ports and sent their instruc- 
tions to their captains entirely by mail. 

Having said so much about commercial affairs, 
it may be well to point out that the Republic had 
a monetary and banking system, which, however 
defective from our point of view, greatly facilitated 
business. It was not a uniform system for the 
entire Republic, nor was it under the immediate 
control of the Estates General. Provincial feeling 
was much too strong to allow of such a thing. But 
it was an improvement on the mediaeval system 
which in many countries has survived almost to our 
own days, and which causes continual annoyance 
and loss to all those who have to deal with it, except 
the money-changers. Out of the different local 
systems of coinage, there developed, during the 
seventeenth century, a common standard coin, the 
guilder. As this was too small an amount for larger 



y 
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 91 

transactions, the business world used to count in 
ryksdaalders, which had the value of two and a half 
guilders and which were equal to our present-day 
dollar.22 

During the time when there was no stadholder, 
and each province was steadily trying to free itself 
from the control of the Estates General, the mon- 
etary system again became disorganized to such 
an extent that between 1681 and 1694 thorough 
reforms were found to be necessary. Holland, 
which had the greatest interest in this matter, was 
the leader, and proposed as a new standard coin the 
three-guilder piece, which was to be maintained 
at a certain nominal value and was to be divided 
into two and a half, two, one, and half guilder 
pieces, and several smaller coins for circulation cur- 
rency. Two gold coins to the value of fourteen and 
seven guilders were also established. Though some 
of the old coins remained in circulation, and the 
provincial mints, as usual, tried to make an extra 
profit out of small irregularities with the lesser 
grades of currency, the value of the standard coins 
and of the gold coins was rigorously maintained, and 
trading between the different provinces became 
easier and offered practically no risk. 

As to the banking system, the credit for the first 
initiative in this direction goes to Amsterdam, 
which established a city bank as early as 1609.^^ 
This bank did a general banking business and, most 
important of all, it paid only in good coin. The 



92 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

town government itself guaranteed the deposits in 
her bank, and these, as long as they remained within 
the bank, could not be attached for any purpose. 
The bank's reserve in currency of the different 
countries was so large that there never was any 
danger of suspension of payment. This made it an 
institution of the greatest value during the many 
crises which occurred in the eighteenth century. 
This bank not only became an important factor 
in the business world of the Republic but of all 
Europe. The credit which it was willing to give, as 
well as its bills of exchange, which were honored 
everywhere, greatly facilitated foreign commerce. 

When, in 1616, Dordrecht and Middelburg, and, 
in 1635, Rotterdam established similar institu- 
tions, Holland became the centre of the European 
exchange business, a position which it maintained 
until the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
when the banks of Hamburg and of England, 
established along the same lines, seriously began to 
compete with those of the Republic. 

Having in the previous pages tried to describe 
the material background of our history, we now 
must consider the people who lived under those con- 
ditions and who profited by the many commercial 
advantages which they owed to their fathers, and 
which filled their purses without any great exertions 
on their own part. 

During the eighteenth century there were about 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 93 

1,700,000 inhabitants within the confines of the 
RepubHc. While theoretically they were all born 
free and equal before the law, and while there 
existed no recognized privileged class, the people 
were nominally divided into three parts. At the 
top we have the class of the Regents, at the bottom 
that of the common people. Between these two ill- 
defined classes was a large class of well-to-do, well- 
educated families, who enjoyed all the privileges of 
wealth, but who were excluded from participation 
in the government on account of not being of a 
Regent family. 

The Regents were all of the same stock. Some of 
them were richer than others, but that did not mean 
a difference in social standing. Just as in our own 
days the poorest little German princeling is the 
equal of his very rich neighbor, so the Mayor of 
Amsterdam was in no way superior to his poor col- 
league in some small provincial nest. The other 
two classes, however, were again divided and sub- 
divided into numberless layers, each of which was 
felt to exist as clearly as if it had been instituted 
by Divine Providence itself, and the inhabitants of 
which were kept in their proper places by their 
neighbors above and their neighbors below. . 

Brilliancy in science or art was not recognized. 
The Regents had as much use for a painter as they 
had for a shoemaker. One made shoes and the other 
made pictures. As for the people from among 
whom all these many painters, scientists, and in- 



94 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

ventors sprang, men who are now the pride of their 
country, they too seem to have beHeved that ex- 
ceptional abihty in such matters was all very well 
in its own way, but that it did not entitle the 
owner thereof to step out of the class in which it had 
pleased Almighty Heaven to place him and to con- 
sider himself superior to his humble fellow citizens. 
The result was that anybody with a particular gift 
for anything not pertaining to the making of money 
was forced to live a sort of bohemian existence 
apart from his fellow citizens or to suffer under 
their daily neglect. The bankruptcy of a number 
of painters, the poor circumstances of a number of 
literary men, and the complete neglect of a number 
of scientific men of international repute will bear 
this statement out. 

The Republic, in its daily life and its mode of 
\/ thinking and feeling, was essentially a commercial 
commonwealth, where the almighty ryksdaalder 
was the standard of success, and where "good" 
meant an ability to pay one's debts and "bad" 
meant an inability to do so. That such a wonderful 
school of art could develop even under these dis- 
couraging circumstances, and that the Republic 
during the two centuries of its existence could in 
such vast measure contribute to the general sum of 
human knowledge, only goes to show how in- 
tensely the men who devoted their lives to these 
unprofitable branches of art and learning were 
interested in their subject. 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 95 

These good people with a scientific or an artistic 
bent were always in the vast minority, and their 
suffering did not disturb the community at large 
any more than the forlorn position of many of their 
scholars and scientists agitates the American public. 
The large majority of men, worshiping things as 
they found them, practical men not given over 
to sentimentalizing, lived contentedly enough, and 
pitied these neighboring communities where a man 
was considered a fine gentleman merely because he 
could smear paint on a piece of linen better than 
anybody else or because he invented an instru- 
ment which had no other use than to magnify drops 
of water. 

In the matter of religion the Regents had, of 
course, to be very conservative. They all be- 
longed to the official Dutch Reformed Church. The 
two other classes, however, were divided by many 
and varied religious creeds. Though the victory of 
the Republic over Spain had been one of Protest- 
antism over Catholicism, there had always been 
a large number of people who had remained faith- 
ful to the old creed. On the whole, they were left in 
peace. They belonged to the poorer classes, and as 
long as they showed that they had no intention of 
carrying their religion into politics, and that they 
were perfectly harmless people, they were allowed 
to worship in peace. In order not to anger their 
orthodox Protestant brethren with their worship 
of images and their swinging of incense, they were 



96 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

obliged to meet in back rooms or in small chapels, 
situated away from the public streets. But then, 
if they were willing to pay a little something to 
those police officials whose duty it was to see that 
the true religion was maintained, they could count 
upon being left undisturbed in the exercise of their 
devotions. 

Socially the Catholics and the Protestants were 
not on very intimate terms. The Protestant never 
got over a certain feeling of uneasiness in his dealing 
with Catholics; visions of inquisitorial doings and 
Jesuitic machinations made him suspicious of his 
Catholic neighbor with his crucifixes and all his 
incomprehensible forms of worship. On the other 
hand, the Catholic was carefully taught by his 
spiritual adviser that the new Republic was after 
all rather a monstrous invention which had robbed 
the Holy Church of all its goods and chattels, and 
which was now trying to entice her children away 
from their old blessed faith. It is true that the 
Catholics never showed any disloyalty to their 
common Fatherland and that the Protestants 
never tried to steal their children. But prejudices 
of that sort are long-lived and exist even in our 
day. 

From olden times, when Lutheranism had been 
common in the Republic, there remained a few 
Lutherans. But most of these had later gone over 
to Calvinism. In some parts of the country, how- 
ever, there were a large number of Baptists. 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 97 

Especially along the Zaan, that highly busy and 
enterprising part of North Holland, the Baptists 
formed a majority of the inhabitants. Being ex- 
cluded from all interest in the government, they 
had directed all their attention towards their daily 
affairs, and being very frugal and industrious they 
had in many cases accumulated great riches. 
Their wealth made them desirable taxpayers, and 
as such they were left in peace by the government, 
were allowed to build their churches wherever they 
wanted to, and to maintain their own religious 
seminaries. 

Being essentially an introspective people, the 
Hollanders indulged in many and often quite re- 
markable forms of religious beliefs. During the 
eighteenth century, however, the governing classes 
had grown sufficiently unorthodox and indifferent 
in all such matters not to bother other folk merely 
because they had singular notions about the best 
ways and means through which salvation could be 
reached. Provided a man behaved himself, he was 
welcome, even if he openly disavowed Christ and 
went to the synagogue to worship an older divinity. 

Looking back at the conglomerate mass of people 
in this small country, people of old Dutch stock, of 
French and German and English immigrant de- 
scent, of Semitic birth or Javanese blood (for the 
line between the different races was never closely 
drawn in the colonies), one is rather astonished 
that the thing went as well as it actually did. Most 



98 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of all, perhaps, it will strike us, that for at least a 
century and a half there was no serious opposition 
to the rule of the Regents. As we have said before, 
the Regents were a self-imposed oligarchy, and 
their government was not supported by an armed 
force. Why, then, did the people upon so few occa- 
sions rebel and throw off this yoke.^^ Simply be- 
cause they did not feel it as such. In dealing with 
matters of the past, we must not forget to make 
allowance for a complete change in the point of 
view. The average man of the eighteenth century 
accepted the government, in which he had no 
share, quite as naturally as the average Christian 
accepts the rulings of Providence, in which he has 
no share. 

Providence was there, to look after the sun and 
the moon and the earth and the rain and the stars ; 
and their lordships, the Regents, were there, to see 
to it that the towns were well governed and that 
hospitals and almshouses and pawnshops and or- 
phan asylums were built, and to provide a thousand 
little jobs for those who needed them. 

A certain amount of good common sense pre- 
vented the Regents from ever becoming too bureau- 
cratic or pedantic in their methods. In dealing with 
the people they usually assumed a certain dignified 
affability, which never failed to impress the humble 
subject so addressed. Although taxes were high 
and had to be paid with exacting promptness, the 
people always felt that they received fair value for 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 99 

their money, and not, as in so many countries, that 
the taxes served only to keep a few courtiers in lux- 
uries. To the average citizen, the town of his birth 
was his world from the day that the official city dry- 
nurse put him into his first swaddling clothes to the 
day that the official town undertaker buried him in 
the local church. 

Business or purposes of study might temporarily 
take him away from his little cosmos, but there he 
belonged and there he hoped to return, and there he 
knew everybody and everybody knew him. How 
these people loved their cities we understand when 
we see the numerous pictures and prints they or- 
dered made of the town pump and the official fish- 
market and of every bit of scenery connected with 
the blessed spot of their birth. 

And if we visit one of these cities and think away 
the modern improvements with their addition of 
bad taste, we can understand how our ancestors of 
a hundred-odd years ago could come to have such 
affection for their home city. Architecture, even in 
the worst periods of baroque and rococo, never be- 
came wholly bad. The general picture which the 
town offered, with its handsome houses and its 
canals lined with stately trees, its public buildings 
expressing the civic pride of the citizens, was one 
which could never fail to please him who looked at 
it with an affection born of the conviction that all 
this was more or less directly his own, and that 
he had had a share in its construction and main- 



100 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

tenance. The streets in the Dutch cities had been 
paved at an early date. It was all very well in other 
countries for fine ladies and gentlemen to allow 
themselves to be carried through the mud in their 
own most particular chaises, but in a Dutch city 
the first and foremost consideration was to haul 
goods from ships to warehouses, and for this purpose 
a pavement was highly necessary. 

At night the streets were lighted. The light of a 
tallow candle or an oil lamp was not a very brilliant 
one, but it was sufficient to prevent citizens from 
falling into the canal, and it greatly discouraged the 
industry of the sneak thief and the hold-up man. 
By increasing the public safety it allowed people to 
make neighborly calls, and in this way increased the 
general sociability. Whether by natural inclina- 
tion or by the fear which the Church had planted 
in their hearts, in case they should fail to be gener- 
ous, the Hollander had from the earliest times been 
a founder of hospitals and of asylums for the weak 
and the young. His practical mind had never taken 
much interest in the building of churches, but in- 
numerable institutions of a public character had 
been endowed since Christianity had made its tri- 
umphant entry between the ninth and the tenth 
century. 

This generosity continued after the Catholic 
Church lost its power. Whether all the money given 
for these charitable purposes was strictly untainted, 
and whether sometimes a small amount of vanity 




THE PALACE OF THE STADHOLDERS 

After an eng 




THE HAGUE DURING THE AKNUAL FAIR 
Dg by D. Marot 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 101 

and the pleasure of seeing one's name engraved in 
marble had nothing to do with the large sums that 
were forthcoming, is of no special consideration. 
The chief fact remained that those who were too 
young or too sick or too old to work could find a 
place where they were taken care of without having 
to go to the workhouse. The supervision of these 
institutions was in the hands of a board of directors 
composed of philanthropic old ladies or gentlemen 
who volunteered their services. In the case of the 
orphan asylums, they saw to it that the inmates 
learned a good trade and became useful members 
of society. 

The well-to-do middle classes, who would never 
become beneficiaries for poor-relief, were able to 
secure their family's future by a system of life in- 
surance, which in this country, full of commercial 
insurance companies, had developed as early as the 
seventeenth century. 

The movement from the country to the city was 
quite strong during the eighteenth century. The 
young girls from the country districts went to the 
city to look for places as domestic servants. Young 
men went there to try to find a career which offered 
more entertainment than that offered by a rustic 
community. 

To keep pace with the increase in prosperity a 
great change occurred in the mode of living. The 
merchant no longer lived at his place of business. 
The living quarters had gradually been removed 



102 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

from the workshop or the ofl&ce. First of all, the 
living quarters had moved upstairs, but the en- 
trance to them had been through the workshop 
downstairs. Then the living quarters received a sep- 
arate entrance. The tradespeople and the artisans 
adhere to this mode of living up to our own day, 
but the merchant moved his actual residence to a 
more desirable part of the town and maintained his 
old residence merely as his office. 

This new way of living, by which a man needed 
two different homes, took a great deal more space 
than the old one, and, as there was no possibility of 
a war, the towns soon grew far beyond their walls. 
In the houses themselves, too, the eighteenth cen- 
tury saw a very great change. We notice the first 
vestiges of what we know under the name of "com- 
fort." Hygiene as a science was still quite as un- 
known as sociology. The canals served as sewers 
and at the same time provided drinking water. Peo- 
ple lived quite as happily and often quite as many 
years under those circumstances as they do in our 
own day. As they knew no better, they asked for 
no better. But they did begin to get acquainted 
with comfort. Stone chimneys had been part of the 
Dutch house long before they had been used abroad. 
They were a great improvement upon the old chim- 
neyless house of the Middle Ages. Still people had 
continued to freeze more or less until, in the eight- 
eenth century, the tile-stove was introduced. The 
stone floors were being replaced by wooden ones. 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 103 

and rugs and carpets covered the floors of the rich 
just as mats covered those of the poor. Sleeping 
and living quarters became separated. 

Also the country was discovered. The mediaeval 
man had rarely known what the country or nature 
meant. He knew that they both could be found out- 
side his city gate, where it was not safe to go. But 
the security from foreign enemies or homemade 
tramps allowed the richer classes to build country 
homes, whither they repaired during the summer 
months when the city grew hot and unhealthy. 
Around each large city there was a region thickly 
covered with summer residences. They were usu- 
ally situated on a canal, so as to allow the business 
man to "commute" by means of the canal boat. 

The greater warmth and the corresponding dry- 
ness of the houses produced a change in the people's 
clothing. No longer was it necessary to dress in 
furs all the year round. The warmer houses allowed 
the wearing of light silks and linens in contrast to 
the old, heavy woolens. The old, heavy hat, which 
had been worn both in the house and out of it, was 
gradually discarded, and merely became an object 
of adornment carried politely under one's arm. 

The furniture in the house was also altered, and 
shows us the change in the people's way of thinking. 
In olden days the Hollander furnished his house 
as though neither he nor his children nor his 
grandchildren ever intended to move. A cup- 
board placed in a certain spot was put there not 



104 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

only for the present occupant, but also for the bene- 
fit of future generations. Tables and chairs and 
everything connected with the house were built on 
lines which took count of the coming centuries. 
The eighteenth century, however, took a different 
view of things. Grandmother's cupboards were 
hoisted to the attic, where, being absolutely moth- 
proof, they did good service as chests for the pretty 
modern clothes. The houses were now refurnished 
with new, more up-to-date and more fashionable 
articles, which, alas, were nothing but a cheap im- 
itation of whatever happened to be fashionable in 
Paris at that 'moment. There was no longer the 
smallest vestige of originality. But nobody asked 
for originality. To do and to be and to think the 
"fashionable thing" was of a great deal more im- 
portance than to be original. The leading families 
went so far in this imitation of foreign manners and 
customs that they considered their own language as 
a sort of rustic patois and preferred to speak and 
write in French or in English. 

It was comparatively easy to imitate the French 
nation in its clothes and in its furniture. To imi- 
tate the grace with which the French ladies and gen- 
tlemen wore those clothes and moved among their 
gilded chairs and tables was another matter and a 
far more difficult one. Heavily built by nature, eat- 
ing and drinking vast amounts and taking no exer- 
cise whatsoever (for it was considered decidedly 
vulgar for ladies to indulge in walks or to be seen 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 105 

on the street more than once or twice a week), 
the Hollander, in all his eighteenth-century frills 
and ribbons, was unfortunately a subject of ridicule 
to the very people he tried to honor by his constant 
imitation. 

Not only was the home in which the eighteenth- 
century people dwelt different from that of their 
fathers and grandfathers, but they also lived much 
better. Not that the worthy ancestors of a century 
earlier ever went hungry. Far from that. But the 
people had become more refined in what they ate 
and drank. The quality began to replace the quan- 
tity. The lower classes, which in so many countries 
were condemned to a dullness in the matter of eat- 
ing and drinking and a sameness which seems to us 
almost unbearable, now enjoyed a great many ad- 
vantages. Tobacco, which is neither food nor drink, 
but quite as necessary to many people, was in such 
common use that the foreigner never thought of a 
Hollander without having visions of large clouds of 
smoke and long clay pipes. Salt and sugar were 
never taxed in such a way that they were out of the 
reach of even the poorer classes. Coffee and tea 
were commodities which in almost all the house- 
holds were available from early morning to late 
night. 

As the people on the farms could no longer work 
for the export trade they were bound to carry their 
products to the nearest local market, and butter 
and cheese and eggs were to be had for prices which 



106 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

we fear to mention in a book meant for American 
readers. With water on all sides and fish for the 
catching, and with a system of free trade which laid 
the country wide open to all colonial and foreign 
imports, the material side of our history is a happy 
one. 

In the line of amusements the eighteenth cen- 
i tury remained as unsatisfactory as the seventeenth. 
But we should not forget that in those days there 
had not yet been formed that large mass of people 
who, not sufficiently educated to amuse themselves 
with their own thoughts, are constantly clamoring 
for a circus to keep them entertained. 

The theatre, under the constant criticism and 
opposition of the ultra-orthodox clergy, had not 
prospered. An occasional visit to the tavern and 
later, when they were introduced as a foreign nov- 
elty, to the coffee-house, was about all the social 
distraction most people ever had. There was a 
good deal of visiting from house to house and a 
good deal of social eating and drinking and smok- 
ing. Entertainments outside of the home circle 
were not encouraged and not considered very nice. 

Once a year there was occasion for a general 
celebration. That was the annual fair, which every 
self-respecting town and village held at a regular 
time of the calendar. Then, everybody, from the 
Stadholder and their lordships, the Estates, down 
to the poorest costermonger, forgot for the moment 
the dignity which he owed to his particular station 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 107 

in life and enjoyed himself thoroughly. The en- 
tertainment, it is true, was tame enough from our 
point of view. It consisted of looking at the booths 
exhibiting wonderful wares from all over the civil- 
ized and uncivilized world, of indulging in a ride on 
a primitive merry-go-round, or of squandering some 
good pennies on the grandmother of the Siamese 
twins or the original wild man from Borneo; not 
to forget the noble game of "monte," which then, 
as now, proved most disastrous to the pocket book 
of the unsuspecting rustic. 

We have just now mentioned the opposition of 
the clergy to the theatre. The clergy still had a 
great deal to do with the daily life of the people. It 
is true religion no longer played such a vital part as 
it had done during the previous century. Among 
the higher classes the interest taken in the affairs of 
the Church was more and more on the wane. But 
the old Calvinistic system was such an excellent 
means by which to keep the people in their proper 
places that the Regents respected the Church, and 
in case of disputes usually supported the clergy as 
against their congregations. 

As to the vast masses of the people, some of them 
were faithful church-goers out of conviction, others 
out of habit. A creed which for many generations 
has meant more to people than life itself is not lost 
in a few years. There always remained a strong 
minority of aggressively orthodox preachers and 
followers who fought with all means fair and unfair 



108 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

for the supremacy of those extreme ideas in which 
most people had lost their interest. 

The clergy of the established Church had always 
occupied a rather particular position in the com- 
munity. For the greater part they were recruited 
from among the lower middle classes. A bright 
boy with exceptionally good brains, but with little 
money, could always count on help in the form of 
scholarships, which would allow him to study for 
the ministry. Once a minister, he was by birth and 
early training a member of the lower classes, but 
in virtue of his calling an ex-officio member of the 
very highest classes. 

What made this position more complicated was 
the fact that the clergy, almost without exception, 
were strong supporters of the House of Orange, 
just as the majority of the class from which they 
sprang were ardent partisans of these princes. Now, 
as the influence of the clergy upon the people re- 
mained strong, and as the clergy could influence 
their congregations against whomever they wanted, 
the Regents had to conciliate the preachers even 
when these — as happened quite frequently — fol- 
lowed a course which was far from pleasant to the 
ruling classes. 

In general, the clergy remained faithful to the 
people who were entrusted to their care, and never 
catered too much to the oligarchy nor forgot the 
vaguely democratic principles which they found 
among the masses. Often through ignorance or an 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 109 

excess of zeal, they stood in the way of justice or 
of progress, but, taking it all in all, they remained 
until the very end an influence for good among 
their surroundings and a class to which as a whole 
the people might well look with respect and devo- 
tion. 

In one way, however, they were losing much of 
their old importance. They were no longer the 
intellectual leaders of their community. The gen- 
eral prosperity and the change in the way of living, 
which sent people to the university rather than to 
the office, did away with the old privilege of the 
clergyman of being the vir doctissimus oi his con- 
gregation. 

This general trend towards the universities fin- 
ally changed the entire character of the people and 
of the universities themselves. Originally the uni- 
versities had been intended as training schools for 
the clergy. The Theological Faculty was the old- 
est and for many centuries the most important. 
Latin and Greek philology, followed by Hebrew, 
Chaldsean, and Arabic, were after all but secondary 
branches of learning and intended to supplement 
the study of the Scriptures. In the course of time 
philosophy was added, and jurisprudence, and 
much later, medicine and the natural sciences. The 
addition of all these studies introduced an element 
of freedom of thought in the university community 
which was not in the least to the liking of many 
pious Protestants. In some of the country pro- 



110 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

vinces, the good people even founded universities of 
their own, in order that they might keep their young 
men at home and out of the way of the temptation 
of LiberaHsm. 

As the universities were not under direct control 
of anybody but the estates of their particular pro- 
vince, which allowed them to be practically auto- 
nomous, they could develop in any direction that 
was agreeable to their faculty. Gradually they lost 
some of the character of the purely professional 
school and began to fulfill the role of the American 
college, i.e., they became places where a young man 
went to get a general education and to make pleas- 
ant friends. Everybody who could afford to do so 
went to the university and enrolled as a student of 
law. That meant that he could spend three or four 
years in reading whatever he pleased and in making 
friends with those young men who seemed most 
likable to him. At the end of the term the student 
let himself be coached in the necessary subjects for 
his examinations, spent a few busy months on a 
Latin dissertation, and then got his degree. This 
degree did not mean that he knew a lot of law, but 
was considered a guarantee that the owner thereof 
had spent a few years at a reputable seat of learn- 
ing and might be considered a gentleman. 

Now, while this change in the university educa- 
tion meant that much superficial work was being 
done, it also meant that a good many more peo- 
ple than ever before got a liberal education. We 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 111 

do not intend to give the impression that all interest 
in serious work had suddenly disappeared. While 
these gay young men of fashion regarded their uni- 
versity merely as a club, a good deal of faithful work 
was still being done in all of the departments. 
Philology, classical and Semitic, still came in for 
considerable attention. The presence of printing- 
shops which could print in all languages favored 
the development of books in these tongues. 

The natural sciences and medicine, not ham- 
pered by laws against dissection, maintained the 
high standard of investigation set by the previous 
century, which has continued to modern times. His- 
tory was a favorite subject of study. During the 
seventeenth century the people were still so full 
of the great and glorious deeds of the war with 
Spain that most of their histories were written on 
this one subject. The eighteenth century, through 
quite a natural reaction, did not take the virtues 
of the forefathers quite as seriously and rather neg- 
lected the history of the war of eighty years. 

Like a great many people who prefer contem- 
plation to active work, the people of 1750 or there- 
abouts used to indulge in genealogical and anti- 
quarian studies. It was a time when old documents, 
old chronicles of towns and provinces, old statutes, 
old privileges, were collected and edited with pro- 
fuse and very learned notes. Not very exciting 
work, we must grant, but very useful for later in- 
vestigators. It also made the people acquainted 



in FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

with the Middle Ages and the changes which had 
taken place in the local government since the days 
of the popular guilds and their influence upon local 
government. 

The study of philosophy had rather a curious 
history. While there was no objection to the study 
of the philosophy of the ancients, the orthodox 
clergy always strongly opposed all attempts at intro- 
ducing a modern system of philosophy. Spinoza, 
the mildest of men, whose philosophical treatises 
were understood by one person in every five thou- 
sand, found himself opposed by the full strength 
of the Church, which saw in him no less than the 
Anti-Christ. 

During the eighteenth century this opposition of 
the clergy grew less as the indifference to religious 
matters grew larger. A general tolerance born of 
indifference, and not of superior convictions, de- 
cided that people could study philosophy if they 
were so inclined, and refused to listen to the violent 
arguments of such pious brethren as saw in such 
liberty a menace to the welfare of their fellow 
citizens' souls. 

Original work was as much absent in the study 
of philosophy as it was in everything else. But that 
which France and England produced was neatly 
reprinted, and was studied with great care and with 
a serious desire to get at the truth. The English 
philosophers, such as Locke and Hume, who ap- 
pealed to common sense more than to abstract 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 113 

reasoning, were the most popular and were trans- 
lated repeatedly, and soon penetrated from the uni- 
versities to the masses at large. The interest in all 
these things was not as profound as it was before, 
but it was certainly much more widespread. Dur- 
ing the latter half of the eighteenth century interest 
in learned subjects became "fashionable." 

Anybody who wished to be considered as some- 
body showed his interest in the Higher Life by col- 
lecting valuable books or china or coins or South 
American butterflies, or anything that was rare and 
expensive. If he were a man of great wealth he 
would hire some hungry Doctor of Laws or Divinity 
to catalogue and describe his collection, and had 
the catalogue printed most beautifully, with hand- 
colored illustrations and a binding which would 
withstand all time and change. 

In order not to grow stale and to keep his mind 
young and fresh, the citizen, blessed with worldly 
goods and an interest in immaterial things, used to 
be very fond of joining some literary or scientific 
society. During the latter half of the century a 
score of such societies were founded. They served 
many purposes. Some of them made a special 
study of literature, others of mathematics and the 
natural sciences ; others were interested in local his- 
tory or provincial genealogy. All of them published 
yearly or half-yearly reports of their meetings and 
sent those reports broadcast. In this way, too, a 
good deal of information which formerly had not 



114 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

been available found its way among large classes of 
people. The good postal system allowed even those 
who lived far away from the centre of things to keep 
informed of what was going on in the big world. 

Another source of information for the masses was 
found in the newspapers. Owing to the good postal 
system, the newspapers had been able to develop 
rapidly, and they kept the whole country informed 
of what was going on in the rest of the world. These 
Dutch newspapers played a curious international 
role. During the eighteenth century they were the 
most up-to-date papers, and maintained such a 
good foreign service that the papers of other coun- 
tries worshiped them most assiduously with their 
scissors. The "Gazette de Leyde," published in 
French, held the place which during the nineteenth 
century was enjoyed by the London "Times." No- 
body was well informed who had not yet seen what 
the "Gazette de Leyde" had to say upon certain 
subjects. Editorials in our sense of the word were 
unknown, but the news items were often accom- 
panied by a few private remarks of the editor. 

Not only did these papers print foreign and do- 
mestic political news and stock quotations, but they 
also kept au courant of the inventions and discov- 
eries made at home and elsewhere. They were so up- 
to-date, that even the patent medicine advertise- 
ment, with "forty years' practice and a thousand 
testimonials," was not wanting. Now, while the in- 
fluence of these papers may not have been that of 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 115 

the standard papers of to-day, still they brought to 
everybody who would take the trouble to read them 
a miscellaneous amount of information which could 
not fail to broaden his views. 

Here ends our short review of the social and eco- 
nomic conditions in the Republic just before the 
French Revolution. All we could attempt to do 
was to make a rough sketch of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, which would throw a light upon the principal 
changes from the previous century. Our work is 
more intended to provide some scenery for the stage 
on which our actors will perform in the following 
chapters than to give a detailed map on which the 
reader would be able to follow the precise move- 
ments of each individual actor. 



CHAPTER III 

WILLIAM IV 

As we have stated before, the death of WiUiam III 
introduced a new period, during which the govern- 
ment of the country was exercised by the Regents 
and during which all of the provinces except Fries- 
land were without stadholders. Friesland, with its 
strong feeling of independence, had always held 
aloof from the other provinces as much as was 
practicable, and had as early as 1584 elected as its 
own stadholder, Willem Lodewyk, a son of Johan 
of Nassau, the oldest brother of William the Silent. 
It was this same collateral branch of the House of 
Nassau which later, during the eighteenth century, 
furnished stadholders for the entire Republic, and 
which in 1815 was elevated to the throne of the 
Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

We have also seen that the first act of the Re- 
gents after William died was to endeavor to draw 
the Republic out of all foreign complications and to 
start upon a new career of "peace at all costs." Of 
course international complications continued to 
take place, and it was not always found possible for 
the Republic to remain absolutely neutral while her 
nearest friends and enemies were fighting each other. 
Furthermore the Republic, from its former days of 
greatness, was still bound to many nations by dif- 



WILLIAM IV 117 

ferent treaties and alliances, and not infrequently 
she was requested to send such assistance as those 
treaties stipulated. Whenever this occurred, the 
request for help was listened to with great patience 
and was then brought up for discussion in the meet- 
ing of the Estates General. But, of course, the for- 
eign ambassadors who made the request would un- 
derstand that in this free Republic nothing could 
be done without first informing all the interested 
parties. The matter, therefore, went from the 
Estates General to the provincial estates. The pro- 
vincial estates referred the matter to the delegates 
from the different cities. The delegates from the 
different cities had to ask the opinion of their burgo- 
master and aldermen. Then, after endless debates, 
the matter under discussion began to creep back to 
where it came from. By the time it reached the 
Estates General, the foreign war was apt to be 
over, through exhaustion of both belligerents; or 
it had become manifest which of the two warring 
countries was going to be victorious and measures 
could be taken to keep on the safe side. This pro- 
ceeding was hardly dignified, but it saved the Re- 
public much money, and hfence was greatly encour- 
aged. 

When in the year 1718, England, France, and 
Austria concluded their triple alliance against 
Spain, it was expected that the Republic would join 
them at once. As a matter of fact the Republic did 
join, but not until the year 1719, when the pre- 



118 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

liminary fighting indicated a victory for the allies. 
A year later, the different leading powers of Europe 
held a sort of peace conference in Cambrai to dis- 
cuss political matters of international interest. The 
Estates General, however, preferred not to incur 
the heavy expenses of sending their delegates to this 
conference and the Republic was not represented. 
This voluntary absence was accepted by the other 
nations as an indication of the Repubhc's desire to 
be left undisturbed in foreign matters. Henceforth 
the Republic was considered a negligible quantity, 
which had to be respected only on account of its 
prominent position on the money market. At the 
same time, when no money could be found to send 
a few representatives to this important conference, 
the whole country went crazy about John Law's 
financial schemes and spent millions in the most 
futile speculation. We mention the episode be- 
cause it indicates the change that had come over 
the Republic. 

After this congress of Cambrai there followed a 
dozen years of European peace. The Republic, free 
from care about the condition of European politics, 
allowed what remained of her army to go to ruin, 
and kept only half a dozen ships afloat with which 
to defend her enormous foreign commerce. 

In 1733, the war of the Polish Succession broke 
out. But this took place far away from Holland, 
and, as England also maintained her neutrality, the 
Republic on this occasion was not disturbed in her 



WILLIAM IV 119 

slumbers. Then followed seven years of general 
peace. Except for a few troops in the wholly neg- 
lected fortifications along the French frontier, the 
so-called Barriere, there were no troops left. The 
fleet was equally as weak. 

Almost an entire generation had now gone by 
since the Regents had resumed the government of 
the country. Only a few old folks remembered the 
days of 1672 and the terrible defeat the Regents' 
party had suffered in that year. The scaffold of de 
Witt and the remembrance of his mutilated body 
being dragged through the streets had become an- 
cient history. One had to be a nonagenarian to have 
a clear recollection of that terrible occurrence. The 
younger generation of the Regents no longer shared 
their fathers' fear of a possible repetition of such a 
violent outbreak. Accordingly, they were less care- 
ful. They had been born and bred under very dif- 
ferent conditions of life from those their fathers 
remembered, and they had no personal knowledge 
of the people's wrath, which was so real and terri- 
ble to their grandfathers. They took their share of 
the government and of the profits of office with 
much less conscious feeling of responsibility than 
their ancestors had known. The country was at 
peace. It was no longer burdened with a useless 
army and a costly navy. There was general abund- 
ance. Surely there was no reason why everybody 
should not be as happy as kings or why anybody 
should grudge the Republic its revenues. 



120 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

But, alas, this pleasant idyll was cruelly disturbed 
in the year 1740. The war of the Austrian Succes- 
sion broke out. The Republic unfortunately was 
one of the signers of the famous Pragmatic Sanc- 
tion, by which Charles VI of Austria had assured his 
daughter, Maria Theresa, of the succession in his 
domains. Neither the Republic nor England, which 
was also one of the signers, had done so out of love 
for the young Princess or out of respect for her aged 
father. In return for their signatures Charles had 
promised to discontinue his attempts to start an 
Austro-Indian Company in Ostend, an undertaking 
which threatened to be a dangerous rival to the 
English and Dutch Indian Companies. 

Now, when in 1740 Frederic the Great started on 
his first freebooting expedition against Austria and 
precipitated the war of the Austrian Succession, the 
Republic was most disagreeably reminded of her 
rash step in signing this Pragmatic Sanction. For 
by this agreement the Republic was bound to come 
to the support of Maria Theresa with arms and 
money. The Empress demanded help, and England 
at once came to the rescue and reminded Holland of 
her obligations to do likewise. But the Republic 
hesitated, for on the other side, lined up with Prus- 
sia, was France, and this country threatened all 
sorts of things should the Republic refuse to main- 
tain a strict neutrality. 

The problem, therefore, came down to the follow- 
ing eminently practical question: either the Repub- 



WILLIAM IV 121 

lie would support the Empress as it was obliged 
to do by solemn treaty, — a policy which would 
cost money and produce no practical results, — or 
the Republic would stay neutral, save money, and 
be rewarded by commercial advantages from the 
French government. 

As usual, a compromise was made. Instead of 
sending the Empress troops, as they were bound to 
do according to the stipulations of the treaty, the 
Estates General sent her some money. Instead of 
sending a fleet, very vague preliminary discussions 
were started about the building of a few new ships. 
Of course, neither side was contented with these 
halfway measures. Maria Theresa thought that 
the RepubHc had done too little. France thought 
that she had done too much. 

In a short time the whole country got inter- 
ested in discussing the purely academic question 
as to whether the Republic was actually bound 
to stick to its solemn promises or not. Soon 
this general debating society developed into two 
camps, divided along the old lines of party politics. 
Those who supported the Empress and England 
were guided by the old friendship which had always 
bound the Princes of Orange to the neighbors across 
the North Sea. On the other side were the Regents 
and their adherents, guided by practical instincts, 
who saw the country's sole salvation in a close 
friendship with France. After a few months' dis- 
cussion, the original questions at issue were forgot- 



122 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

ten in the general revival of the political quarrels 
between the pro- and anti-Stadholderites. 

Meanwhile the head of the House of Orange was 
peacefully living in Leeuwarden, the capital of 
Friesland, and was ruling this province without ex- 
ercising the slightest influence upon any of the rest 
of the Republic or upon her foreign policy. ^^ The 
head of the house at that moment was Willem Karel 
Hendrik Friso, aged twenty-nine years. He was 
born in Leeuwarden on September 1, 1711. His 
father had been drowned two months before while 
crossing the Moerdyk, on his way from the army 
in Belgium to the Hague, whither he was bound 
to see about the settlement of the inheritance of 
William HI. His mother was a German princess, 
Mary Louise of Hesse-Cassel. She, as well as her 
husband, was of a family of more than ordinary men- 
tal and physical gifts. The husband, Johan Willem 
Friso, might have done great things in the Republic 
if he had not met with such an untimely end. 

But the child of this couple was a very common- 
place little personage. Neither in appearance nor 
in mental make-up did he resemble his parents. As 
a small child he had been sickly, and had been edu- 
cated, therefore, by his mother with great care and 
in the quietest of ways. He had spent his whole 
youth in Leeuwarden, a city remarkable for its slow 
dignity, conservatism, and general dowdiness. It 
was a little country town, situated far away from 
the large outside world, and not much in touch with 



WILLIAM IV 123 

what happened abroad. Friesland was a little re- 
public by itself, with a rich aristocracy and a rich 
peasant class. Between these two there was hardly 
a second class. The aristocracy lived either on its 
estates or in Leeuwarden. Very proud of its old 
names and its glorious family histories, it had petri- 
fied into a rather dull but extremely haughty and 
conservative class of imitation grands seigneurs. 
For the rich crowd of green-grocers and butchers, 
who were almighty in Holland and in most of the 
rest of the Republic, they had no use whatsoever. 
Indeed, whenever the occasion offered itself they 
treated them with great superiority and high-and- 
mightiness, a feehng which was reciprocated most 
energetically by the merchants of the Province of 
Holland. 

In this atmosphere, full of rather feudal senti- 
ments, young Willem Karel Hendrik Friso, whom 
we shall know under the name of William IV, grew 
up under the rigid discipline of his mother. She 
was very pious and very strict, and young Will- 
iam's life was not full of exhilarating joy. He got, 
however, an excellent foundation in many serious 
branches of learning and great virtuosity in dis- 
cussing theological questions. His mother, more- 
over, must have been a woman of rare tact, for, at 
the early age of twenty-three, when she was left a 
widow in a strange and not very hospitable land, 
she gradually managed to make herself so well- 
beloved that the homely nickname, "Mary ken 



lU FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Meu," or "Mother Mary," which her contempo- 
raries gave her, is still remembered with pleasant 
affection in even our own day. 

In the year 1726, at the age of fifteen, the young 
Prince was sent to the University of Franeker. This 
was one of the small universities which local pa- 
triotism had erected in opposition to the more in- 
ternational one at Leiden. It enjoyed, however, an 
excellent name in the world of scholarship. Here 
William made for himself a reputation as a serious 
student and indulged in many and varied branches 
of study. Mathematics and physics attracted him 
more especially, although it is doubtful what use he 
ever intended to make of them in his work as a 
statesman. 

After a residence of two years in Franeker, he 
went to Utrecht, where at the well-known univers- 
ity he again followed only such lectures as inter- 
ested him. With this smattering of learning he 
finally went back to Leeuwarden to assume the 
duties of the stadholdership, which his mother had 
exercised for him until he should be of age. 

His prospects for playing a leading role in the 
Republic were not large. It is true that some of the 
minor country provinces in the east, Groningen, 
Drenthe, and Gelderland, had gradually preferred 
to appoint the young Prince their stadholder rather 
than continue under the old system of government 
by the Regents. But as long as Holland refused to 
throw off the yoke of their rule, the other provinces 



WILLIAM IV 125 

counted for very little. And in Holland the Prince 
had at that moment practically no influence. He 
was befriended by a few leading families who had 
always been stanch supporters of the House of 
Orange and who now lived in forgotten obscurity. 
Of course among the people and among the clergy 
the majority were still faithful to the House of 
Orange, but the people were not organized and 
the Regents were. Hence it was impossible for 
the majority to assert themselves. 

But now that the War of the Austrian Succession 
had broken out and the Republic was full of ru- 
mors that she would be drawn into the fight herself, 
the leading partisans of the Prince thought that the 
time had come to do something for the advance- 
ment of his cause. Their first thought was to ask 
the English government to give William a high mili- 
tary position in the army which was going to be sent 
to the support of the Austrian Empress. Then, 
when the Prince should return as a conquering hero, 
his chances would have increased enormously. But 
the unfortunate young man was chicken-breasted 
and suffered from chronic asthma; he lacked all 
the qualifications for a military hero, and the plan 
had to be given up. There was nothing for him 
to do but to continue his peaceful life in Leeu- 
warden. 

All this time, through a number of inheritances, 
the Prince was getting to be a rich man. Several of 
the collateral branches of the family died out, and 



126 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the Prince acquired their possessions. So that by 
the year 1742 his power as a ruler over a number of 
small German states was quite as large as that 
which he exercised as Stadholder of Friesland and 
Groningen and Gelderland. It put him into rather 
a curious position, for he was absolute ruler over his 
patient Teutons and the subordinate executive of 
the estates of the aggressively "free-born" Frisians. 
To the Prince, however, more possessions meant 
more money, and more money meant more power. 
Gradually he was becoming the richest man of his 
country. 

Meanwhile, also, the debate as to the advisability 
or inadvisability of sticking to one's given word was 
still going on, and fortunately with increasing suc- 
cess for those who supported the safe and sane pol- 
icy of honesty. In 1744, the Estates General, after 
much pressure on the part of England, at last con- 
sented to come to the support of the Empress, and 
began to gather a few troops. They even went so 
far as to discuss the possibility of giving the Prince 
of Orange a post as lieutenant-general. But Will- 
iam, like a good many dull people, was of a most 
tenacious nature. His father had been commander- 
in-chief before him. Either he was going to be com- 
mander-in-chief, too, or he was going to be nothing 
at all. As far as he was concerned, there was not go- 
ing to be any compromise. The offer was therefore 
declined. The troops were sent under another lieu- 
tenant-general, and the prince remained in Leeu- 



WILLIAM IV 127 

warden and waited in peace for the things that were 
to come. 

The international poHtical situation, however, 
was changing very fast. England had strictly fol- 
lowed out all the promises made to Charles VI, 
and had sent an auxiliary army to Maria Theresa. 
At Dettingen, this army had beaten the French. 
France, in order to get even with England, was 
equipping a fleet which was to bring the English 
Pretender Charles Edward into his rightful domin- 
ion. The French fleet, with the Pretender and a 
large army, actually sailed away from France to 
invade England, but owing to very bad weather it 
failed to land or to accomplish anything. But this 
unfortunate enterprise sufficed to draw the Repub- 
lic definitely into the general mix-up. For the Re- 
public and England were united by two defensive 
treaties, one of the year 1678 and one of the year 
1716. These treaties stipulated that either country 
must help the other in case of a threatened inva- 
sion. Now England was being threatened with an in- 
vasion. Hence the Republic, according to the words 
of the treaty, must send her six thousand soldiers. 
The sending of six thousand men, however, meant 
certain war with France. The difficulty was great. 
England clamored for help. France clamored for 
neutrality. Again the Republic tried to please both 
parties. The six thousand men were actually 
brought together, but great difficulty was experi- 
enced in shipping them across the North Sea. It 



J 

128 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

was found to be impossible to collect even twenty 
ships. The best naval officer who could be found 
to command this fleet was a venerable gentleman of 
seventy-three years of age who had been pensioned 
during the last fifteen years. The second in com- 
mand was sixty-nine years old. 

Before the auxiliary troops were finally embarked, 
the French expedition had come to grief. England 
was no longer threatened with an invasion and the 
Dutch troops were no longer needed. But the epi- 
sode had sufficed to show the Republic's bad faith 
and had estranged her from both France and Great 
Britain. The Republic had now sunk so low that, 
while she was collecting the necessary men for her 
English expedition, she at the same time sent a spe- 
cial mission to France to make clear in Paris that she 
supported England only under very great pressure 
and that such support was not intended as an act 
of hostility against her good French friends. Even 
after a French army had invaded Belgium (which 
was an Austrian province) and had taken all the 
Dutch fortifications of the Barriere, the Republic 
continued her policy of conciliation in Paris, and 
went to any degree of indignity and humiliation 
rather than openly take the side to which she was 
bound by solemn treaty. In this way, when the 
year 1745 came, she had lost the good will and the 
/ respect of every other nation in Europe, and, more- 
over, was finally dragged into the war and under 
the most unfavorable circumstances. 



WILLIAM IV 129 

For France refused to be pacified by extraordin- 
ary missions. She declared war and immediately 
invaded Dutch territory. The Dutch fortifications, 
fallen into decay and manned by a few veteran 
pensioners, were surrendered without the firing of a 
single shot. Within a few weeks the French army 
conquered the greater part of the Dutch territory 
on the south shore of the Scheldt. Since the year 
1672 the Republic had not seen a war so near her 
door. Stories of French vandalism were still alive 
and were revived by the behavior of the troops 
under Maurice of Saxony, who, although specially 
admonished by the French government to "go 
easy," entertained very liberal ideas about the 
right of the conqueror and the "exigencies of 
war." 

When in the spring of 1747 the French troops 
made ready to penetrate farther into Dutch terri- 
tory, a terrible panic spread. Whosoever could 
afford to do so fled across the Scheldt and escaped 
to the islands of Walcheren and Beveland. Most 
of the fugitives went to Middelburg on the island 
of Walcheren, the capital of Zeeland. Middelburg 
had been one of the first Dutch cities to throw off 
the Spanish yoke, and since the disappearance of 
the Spanish troops its inhabitants had not had op- 
portunity to see what a foreign soldier looked like. 
They were now thrown into terrible distress by the 
harrowing stories of their brethren from across the 
Scheldt. The whole island, one of the richest parts 



130 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of the whole Republic, saw itself at the mercy of the 
invading enemy. 

In Vlissingen and in Veere, the two cities over 
which the Prince of Orange, in his quality of Mar- 
quis of those cities, had always exercised great influ- 
ence, and which had always been connected with 
the House of Orange by very affectionate ties, the 
people assembled in the market-place and caused 
considerable disorder. Vlissingen was still a pro- 
sperous city with a large colonial commerce. Veere 
was strongly on the decline, and was changing from 
an important mediaeval town into a country village, 
where to-day the remains of an immense Gothic 
church, a wonderful town hall, and a few beautiful 
houses preach a silent lesson of past glory. 

Curiously enough, it was in Veere, with its thou- 
sand and odd inhabitants, that the first outbreak 
occurred. During the evening of the 24th of April 
of the year 1747 the news of the fall of Aarden- 
burg, the key to the whole of the Republic's part 
of Flanders, became known. The people flocked 
to the town hall. Speeches were made. Almost ex- 
actly the same thing happened as in the year 1672. 
There were loud and violent outcries of treachery. 
The Regents were blamed for everything. The 
only hope for salvation was seen in the immediate 
appointment of a stadholder and commander-gen- 
eral. In the middle of the night the Burgomaster 
of Veere was visited by an angry multitude. In 
order to save himself from violence, he was obliged 



WILLIAM IV 131 

to promise that he would on the morrow advise the 
Estates of Zeeland to appoint Prince WiUiam as 
stadholder. 

From Veere to Middleburg is only half an hour's 
walk. The next morning the disorder of Veere had 
spread to the Zeeland capital. The Regents, as al- 
ways under similar circumstances, were helpless. 
They had no armed force at their disposal. Within 
three days the whole of the Province of Zeeland was 
clamoring for the appointment of William, and on 
the 28th of April the provincial estates decided to 
offer the Prince of Orange the dignity of Stadholder 
of their province. 

The first news of this popular uprising reached 
Holland by way of Rotterdam, which heard of it 
through the sailors of the small boats which early 
each morning brought the fresh vegetables from 
the Zeeland Islands. No sooner were these small 
boats, adorned with Orange flags, seen on the Maas, 
than the crowd along the river broke forth into wild 
joy. Orange ribbons were produced from some- 
where, and soon a procession of much-beribboned 
people began to move towards the town hall, the 
final goal of all similar processions. Inside the 
town hall a number of badly frightened Regents 
were holding a meeting. Much against their will — 
for they were defenseless — the burgomasters were 
forced to receive a delegation from among the pro- 
cessionists. A baker and a cartwright were their 
spokesmen. In very determined words they de- 



132 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

manded that the town council should lend its sup- 
port towards the appointment of Prince William IV 
as Stadholder of Holland. The town council could 
do nothing but acquiesce. Within an hour the 
Orange flag was floating from the old tower of the 
Lawrence Church. The rest of the day was spent 
in celebrations. The taverns did a great business. 

Exactly the same thing happened in Dordrecht 
and the Hague and Haarlem and Ley den. Proces- 
sions formed everywhere; the town council was bull- 
ied into submission, and the old flag of the Prince 
was gloriously hoisted on the highest available 
church tower. 

Three days this peaceful revolution lasted. No 
blood flowed. Only a few very unpopular Regents 
suffered material damage in the form of broken 
window-panes. That was all. But on the 3d of 
May the Estates of Holland offered the Stadholder 
of Friesland, Groningen, and Gelderland the dig- 
nity of Stadholder of their own province, and on 
the next day they appointed him commander- 
in-chief of the Republic's armies and of the navy. 
The young Prince saw himself reinstated in all the 
dignities which had formerly belonged to his great- 
uncles. His patience was rewarded. Without him- 
self contributing to the final results in any way, he 
was called to his high office. 

A deputation from among the Estates of Zeeland 
crossed the Zuyderzee and arrived in Leeuwarden 
on the 5th of May. They asked His Highness to 



WILLIAM IV 133 

proceed at once to their province. On the 10th 
of May His Highness, with his young wife, Anna, 
daughter of George II of England, took a fond fare- 
well of his mother and proceeded to Holland. 

On Ascension Day the august family arrived in 
Amsterdam, where they were welcomed by the 
Burgomaster and deputations from all influential 
commercial and civic bodies of the town. As for the 
people, they had not shouted "Vivat Oranje" for 
so long, that they could do it now with a vengeance. 
The enthusiasm was immense, and wherever the 
Prince appeared he was greeted as a returning hero. 

At last, after almost half a century, the people 
were again delivered from the oppressive yoke of 
the Regents. They felt that, as of old, the Prince 
of Orange would protect the country against the 
foreign enemy, and would put an end to all the 
many unbearable abuses which had gradually de- 
veloped while the Regents were in supreme com- 
mand of the country. 

William IV was now Stadholder of all of the pro- 
vinces of the entire Republic. ^^ But that was not 
enough for those who supported him. He might 
die without leaving issue, and then the country 
would see a repetition of what happened after the 
death of William III. There was not yet a well- 
organized political party behind the Stadholder, but 
all of a sudden it was discovered that a large ma- 
jority of the people felt the same way about cer- 
tain things. In order to save the country from the 



134 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

disastrous system caused by the rule of a few privi- 
leged families, it was felt in a general and vague way 
that certain fundamental changes had to be insti- 
tuted. To be more concise, it was found that the 
majority of the people were in favor of a more cen- 
tralized system on a constitutional-monarchial basis. 

A great many contemporary historians of this 
period talk about the uprisings and the popular 
enthusiasm of the "mob," "the Plebs," "the pro- 
fanum vulgus." No doubt, that element made itself 
the most conspicuous. But behind it all there was 
a very sound popular feeling that a change in the 
general construction of the Republic's political sys- 
tem was eminently necessary and that William IV, 
as the man who had been put into office as the 
candidate of the reform party, had to be given great 
power in order to be able to bring about the much- 
desired reforms. Accordingly, on the 7th of Octo- 
ber, 1747, William was made hereditary Stadholder 
of all the seven provinces with a power which made 
him practically the sovereign ruler of the Republic. 

It was now W^illiam's turn to fulfill the obligations 
which he owed to those who, through their direct 
pressure, had given him his power. But here he 
failed most hopelessly. He had none of the gifts of 
a true reformer. He might have made a faithful 
and patient executive. But he lacked all initiative, 
and he soon gave up trying to perform a task which 
was utterly beyond his strength. In the parlance 
of modern American life, " He failed to make good." 



WILLIAM IV 135 

As we have said before, during the last fifty years 
several evils had developed in political life which 
demanded immediate correction. First of all, the 
postal system was in a bad condition. We have seen 
how the postal companies were private enterprises, 
and how their revenues were not used for the public 
benefit, but went into the pockets of the local Re- 
gents who happened to make up the town govern- 
ment and control the political jobs. These revenues 
often amounted to large sums. In Amsterdam they 
were no less than two hundred thousand guilders 
yearly, in the Hague they were almost forty thou- 
sand guilders. Now there had long been a feeling 
that this was not as it should be; that the revenues 
of the postal companies ought not to serve to en- 
rich a few private individuals. Therefore, the peo- 
ple demanded that the whole postal system should 
come directly under the control of the Stadholder, 
and that its revenues should go into the public 
treasury. 

As most of the supporters of the Prince were 
found among the middle classes, we are not aston- 
ished to find them demanding that something be 
done for the guilds. From a political-economic 
standpoint this demand offered little hope of suc- 
cess. The days of the guilds were gone by. Indi- 
vidualism in commerce and trade, and liberty in 
handwork, were becoming the keynote of the indus- 
trial situation. The people, however, did not see 
these things as we do now; they only knew how, 



136 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

under the Regents, the guilds were gradually losing 
all the influence and the control over the affairs of 
the town and the province which they had formerly 
enjoyed. Hence they hoped that interference by 
the new stadholder would be suflicient to revive 
what was economically destined to perish. 

Another important demand was expressed in re- 
lation to the civic militia. Formerly this militia had 
elected its own ofl&cers. Gradually the vacancies 
in the corps of officers had been filled by the Re- 
gents with their own supporters. In this way, so 
the people feared, the militia would eventually be- 
come too much influenced by the ruling classes and 
might be used by them in case of political disturb- 
ances. Therefore the people demanded that the 
militia again be allowed to elect their officers with- 
out any interference on the part of the town hall. 

Finally, there were many and loud complaints 
about the way in which the taxes were being col- 
lected. The taxes were high, as we have seen, but 
not exorbitant. They were not levied by the gov- 
ernment directly, but were farmed out to tax-col- 
lectors. These gentlemen maintained that reputa- 
tion for meanness and cruelty which they have 
enjoyed since the earliest days of human history. 
Would the Stadholder kindly see to it that a change 
for the good was made in this unsavory business.'* 
Yes, His Highness would see to everything; but 
would the people please give him a few weeks' time 
to get familiar with his new surroundings.'^ The 



WILLIAM IV 137 

people gave him a few weeks and the weeks changed 
into months and the months changed into years 
and nothing was ever done. 

It is true a few changes were made in the postal 
system. The revenue derived therefrom now flowed 
into the provincial treasury. A few other reforms 
were begun, but never finished. Others were never 
begun at all. Several of the most objectionable Re- 
gents were removed from office. But their places 
were immediately taken by others from the same 
class. The men changed, but the system remained "^ 
the same. After the many lean years the Regents 
who were partisans of Orange were now allowed to 
graze for a while on the fields of private privilege, 
and the Regents of the Anti-Orange party were 
politely requested to remove themselves temporarily 
from those blessed fields and to enjoy what the fat 
years had just brought them. 

As to the popular demands, they were speedily 
forgotten. Of course, we could hardly have ex- 
pected William IV to institute a modern democratic 
form of government. Such a change would have 
been an impossibility, and as a matter of fact was 
not wanted by anybody. There was only one 
country which had something resembling popular 
government, and that was England. But England 
was at that particular moment possessed of such 
corrupt politics that nobody cared to flatter it by 
an imitation of its system. What the Stadholder 
could have done, however, was to assure himself 



138 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of the cooperation of the large intelligent classes 
which still remained excluded from all influence in 
political matters. Neither they nor the common 
people were any better off than before. 

Gradually the people discovered that their re- 
form candidate, from whom they had expected such 
great things, was no better than the men whom 
he had supplanted. The people turned away from 
the Stadholder, and their disappointment changed 
their love into hatred. Was it for this that they had 
given themselves all this trouble of bringing about 
his election? they asked, when they saw how the 
Prince drew his chief advisers exclusively from 
among the Regents and how he surrounded himself 
with ultra-conservative members of the Frisian 
nobility. 

The polite and hesitating way in which the Stad- 
holder removed such members of the town govern- 
ment as had to be dismissed in order to appease 
the popular demand for revenge, did as much harm 
to his reputation as if he had never removed them 
at all. Furthermore, it seemed that the Prince 
would never get over apologizing to these victims 
of the popular wrath, explaining how really and 
truly it was not his fault that they had to retire, and 
that he had acted much against his own taste in the 
matter; and would they please not be cross with 
him.'^ Whereupon he was apt to go and dine with 
them, to show them that there was no hard feeling 
on his part at all. 




ILLUMINATION OF AMSTERDAM TOWN HALL FOR THE S' 

After an engravi 




E VISIT OF WILLIAM V AND HIS WIFE, MAY 3, 1768 
)y S. Fokke 



WILLIAM IV 139 

The young Prince ruled only a few years, but in 
those few years he showed decisively that he had no 
understanding whatsoever of his actual position or 
of the things that were reasonably expected of him. 
He did his very best according to his own lights 
and was surprised to discover himself a failure. 
Gradually he was driven into the small party of 
Orangist Regents, who, through his own appoint- 
ment, had been returned to power. But this party 
had no longer the support of the large masses of 
Orangist citizens. These now went their own way. 
They did not at once form a regular party as we un- 
derstand political parties, but they held aloof from 
the Stadholder and showed him in many direct and 
indirect ways that he no longer had their support. 

Wherefore by the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury the Republic was divided into three political 
parties, defined very vaguely, but existing never- 
theless as separate political bodies. First of all 
there were the supporters of the policy of decen- 
tralization, the party of the Estates, the Regents. 
Secondly, there was the Stadholder and a few lead- 
ing Orangist families who wanted centralization, 
but primarily for the benefit of the Prince and of 
themselves. Thirdly, there was the large mass of 
the people who wanted a change towards central- 
ization and an escape from the prevalent chaotic 
condition. These found themselves deserted by 
their chosen leader and now drifted about without 
any guidance. 



140 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

* In the year 1748 the War of the Austrian Succes- 
sion ended. There was now no longer any danger 
of foreign invasion. The Prince, who for decency's 
sake had gone to the field of action, returned and 
went to his labors as general stadholder. It can- 
not be denied that he worked hard. He tried to in- 
troduce some necessary reforms in order to stay 
the rapid decline of commerce. He even got up a 
very valuable collection of suggestions which were 
presented to the Estates General for their consid- 
eration, but were promptly lost in that unprofitable 
desert of " future consideration." 

But in all such matters the Prince was wont to 
lose himself in details, to err from the broad way 
that led to somewhere in order to investigate the 
bypaths that led to nowhere in particular. His 
health had never been very good. The attacks 
which he began to suffer from all sides bothered 
him a great deal. According to his own lights he 
did the very best he could. That this very best was 
not pleasing to his subjects was a matter of grief to 
him, and quite as inexplicable as it was painful to 
his self-respect. 

In less than three years it seemed that he was 
exhausted and would not be able to go on with his 
task. In September of 1751, his physicians sent 
him to Aix-les-Bains for a cure. Somewhat im- 
proved in health he returned. But in October of the 
same year he fell sick again; this time of erysipelas. 
Usually this is not a deadly disease, but his weak 



WILLIAM IV 141 

constitution could not stand the strain. On the 22d 
of October, 1751, William suddenly died. The man 
who four years before had been hailed as the 
Father of his Country was buried amidst general 
indifference. Even the faithful orthodox preachers, 
who were on the side of the House of Orange through 
all vicissitudes, did not know what to say in their 
funeral orations. When there was talk about a gen- 
eral mourning in respect to his memory, many 
voices were raised in protest. What was there to 
mourn about? 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PRINCESS ANNA 

When William IV died he left a daughter and a 
son. The latter was just three years old. The 
actual government went, therefore, into the hands 
of his widow, the Princess Anna of Hannover, 
daughter of King George II of England. For eight 
years, until the time of her death in 1759, Anna was 
the Regent of the country, or, as she was commonly 
called, the "Governess." 

These eight years were most unfortunate, not 
only for the country, but more especially for the 
Governess herself. The English Princess had never 
been very happy in the land of her adoption. Hos- 
pitality towards strangers was not a common virtue 
in a country of such pronounced provincial views. 
But the Princess suffered under other grievances. 
She was of royal blood and accustomed to be the 
first in the land of her birth. In the Republic the 
position of her husband had always been a doubtful 
one; for although he was the chief executive of 
the Republic, he was technically the servant of the 
estates of the provinces which had appointed him 
their stadholder. Hence there occurred continual 
unpleasantnesses. The wives of the members of the 
estates expected her to call on them first. The 



THE PRINCESS ANNA 143 

Stadholder, so they maintained, was an employee 
of their husbands, and his wife should remember this 
fact. Only after a lengthy argument were they at 
last induced to present their cards at the House in 
the Woods before the Princess had honored them 
with her visit. The rich middle classes never omit- 
ted to show the Princess exactly what her position 
in this free Republic was. The fact that she was of 
royal blood was not going to make any difference. 
On the contrary, it only provoked hostility and 
distrust. 

But much of her unhappiness the Princess owed 
to her own peculiar characteristics. The first thing 
for her to do would have been to found a party 
around herself and her small son. There were still 
many people anxious to support the Stadholder 
with great loyalty. But the Princess failed to see 
the necessity of rallying them around her. She did 
not like most people whom she met, and she rarely 
trusted them. Whenever a perfectly disinterested 
person offered to give her sound counsel, she was 
wont to distrust this person's motives and in con- 
sequence accepted his advice with ill grace. Many 
of the old nobility who had remained faithful to the 
House of Orange she estranged by her very proud 
and haughty behavior. She soon found herself de- 
serted except by a few inferior persons who were 
willing to flatter her and who told her only what she 
liked to hear. 
» To make matters worse, the Princess was on 



144 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

very bad terms with her mother-in-law. This old 
lady had remained in Leeuwarden, and from there 
she was continually intriguing against her Brit- 
ish daughter-in-law. The two princesses had never 
been on good terms. In the first place, the old 
Princess, who had been wrapped up in the life and 
the career of her son, naturally disliked to see an- 
other woman take so much of the place in her 
son's life which formerly had belonged to herself. 
Furthermore, the characters of the two women 
were entirely different, and the old one had seen the 
young one's departure to the Hague with scarcely 
hidden pleasure. 

No sooner had William IV died than the old 
mother in Leeuwarden began to worry about the 
way in which her grandchildren in the Hague were 
being educated. The German could not possibly 
approve of the British methods. The grandmother 
unfortunately allowed herself to be guided by her 
prejudices and started to intrigue openly against 
her daughter-in-law. In this she was actively sup- 
ported by the old Frisian nobility. For almost half 
a century these people had formed the only court in 
the Republic. Now there was another and a much 
more brilliant court in the Hague, and they did not 
like it. They no longer played such an important 
role in the councils of the House of Orange as 
formerly, and they felt themselves reduced to the 
second rank. Of course they might easily have ob- 
tained positions at the court of the Hague, but. 



THE PRINCESS ANNA 145 

being of an intensely provincial nature and having 
the ordinary feudal dislike of anything commercial, 
they preferred to stay in their own little city. 

The first manifestations of this opposition from 
the north came when a proposal was made in the 
Estates General to appoint a board of tutors for the 
small Prince, in which all of the relatives should be 
represented. The formation of such a board would 
have given the grandmother as much influence over 
the education of her grandchildren as she had exer- 
cised over that of their father before them. But, as 
we have seen before, the people in Holland recipro- 
cated the sentiments which the north felt towards 
them, and they had no desire to oblige their Frisian 
compatriots in any way or to give them a chance 
to educate the Prince; they intended to shape him 
after their own pattern. The board of tutors was 
never appointed, but the episode sufficed to show 
to everybody that there was no cooperation in the 
camp of the Stadholder, and in this way it did great 
damage to the cause of the little Prince. 

Other mistakes were soon to follow. There had 
always been many people who felt that the Stad- 
holder was responsible for too many things, that 
he could not well attend to all matters that were 
brought to his attention, and that he ought to have 
a corps of assistants, who should act as his secre- 
taries and who should form what we might call a 
responsible ministry. In this way the Stadholder 
would be allowed the necessary time for attending 



146 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

to matters of more importance than the accounting 
of some insignificant bills or the appointment of 
a burgomaster somewhere in a country district. 
William IV had never had time to listen to this 
proposition, being too busy with just the sort of 
detail which he ought to have left to the care of a 
subaltern. 

Several of the wisest councillors of the party now 
made similar proposals to the Governess. The 
Count of Bentinck, a stanch supporter of the House 
of Orange, made a voluminous report upon this mat- 
ter. The report, however, was respectfully put on 
the table. Bentinck, who was not the sort of man 
who liked to see his advice treated that way, retired 
to his estates and was seen no more in the councils 
of the Princess. 

But, after all, as the Princess was not familiar 
enough with political conditions in the Republic 
to do everything herself, she was more and more 
obliged to leave the management of her affairs to 
little secretaries, obscure persons who served the 
interest of the stadholders and those of their own 
families with the greatest impartiality. 

With men like Bentinck and his friends out of the 
way, the Regents now descended upon the helpless 
family. They cleverly managed to make themselves 
indispensable to the Princess, who was floating 
around without any guidance. Not that they had 
suddenly grown into supporters of the Stadholder. 
On the contrary, this exalted office was just as objec- 



THE PRINCESS ANNA 147 

tionable an institution to them now as it ever had 
been before. But so long as there was going to be a 
stadholder anyway, it was most clearly in their own 
interest to have the greatest possible influence upon 
that dignitary. 

After a few years there was but one person left 
within the entourage of the Princess who could be 
expected to serve her in a more or less impartial 
way. This was the Duke of Brunswick. ^^ His 
Serene Highness Louis Ernest Duke of Brunswick 
Wolfenbuettel plays a curious role in the history of 
the Republic. He started life as a German prince. 
Then for many years he was an Austrian field- 
marshal. After that he was commander-in-chief of 
the Dutch armies and practical dictator of the 
Republic. The last years of his life he spent again 
in Germany, where he died in the ancestral family 
castle. He was born September 25, 1718. He be- 
longed to a large but poor family, and as such had to 
look for a career abroad. He entered the Austrian 
military service and served for three years under 
Seckendorff in the war against the Turks. In 1747, 
Maria Theresa made him a field-marshal as a re- 
ward for his services. He took an active part in the 
War of the Austrian Succession, and was wounded 
so badly that the surgeons despaired of his life. 
But he survived this experience and was sent to re- 
cuperate for a while in Aix. 

While the Duke was in Aix, the French invaded 
Belgium, and as he was near the seat of war he was 



148 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

sent at the head of an army to Dutch Flanders. 
There he met William IV, who had just been made 
stadholder, and who was now inspecting the means 
of defense along the frontier. He seems to have 
made such a deep impression upon the Stadholder 
that William tried at once to induce him to enter 
his own employment. It took quite a lot of persua- 
sion to induce Maria Theresa to allow her general 
to change his allegiance, but at last this was accom- 
plished and the Duke of Brunswick went to Holland 
in order to reorganize the Dutch armies. 

We must confess that we do not know entirely 
what to make of the man. Few people who have 
played a role in Dutch history have been written 
about so much. A whole collection of pamphlets 
exists about this one individual. He has been cari- 
catured and lampooned numberless times. About 
few people have such infamous things been said and 
printed as were said and printed openly about the 
"Fat Duke." During the last years of his life he 
hired a German professor to write his biography, 
and he tried to defend himself against much that 
had been said against him. The professor had a 
minute diary in six big volumes from which to draw 
his information.^^ But this apologia pro vita did not 
help him in the least. For more than a century the 
Fat Duke remained the scapegoat for everything 
that had gone wrong in the Republic. It was he, so 
it was said, who had corrupted William V morally 
and physically and who had turned the Prince's 



THE PRINCESS ANNA 149 

brilliant gifts into idiocy in order that he might re- 
tain his influence over the helpless creature, etc., etc. 

During the last twenty years an attempt has been 
made to rehabilitate the Duke — to prove that his 
contemporaries treated him with great and unde- 
served ingratitude and tried to hide their own sins 
by pointing to those of the Prince's most trusted 
adviser. An attempt has also been made to prove 
that the Duke was the only man who, under given 
circumstances, might have saved the Republic from 
destruction. As is usually the case, the truth will 
be somewhere between the two extremes. 
[- A man who, during twenty years, maintained him- 
self at the head of such an ungovernable country as 
the Republic, may have been everything else, but he 
could not have been a fool. Furthermore, he must 
have had good mental qualities, for he could not im- 
press those around him by his physical superiority. 
He was quite extraordinarily ugly, and in middle 
life he grew so fat that he could hardly mount a 
horse, and his figure became the standing joke of the 
army and of the people in general. From childhood 
he had stammered. As he grew older, his stam- 
mering grew worse, and the diflSculty he experi- 
enced in expressing himself distinctly and clearly 
made it very hard for most people to understand 
what he was really talking about. 

All his enemies, however, agree that he thor- 
oughly understood human nature and that he had 
great ability as a poKtical manager. Among the 



150 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

many small politicians whom the Republic pro- 
duced, this man, who came to them from the "big 
world,** who, from his earliest age on, had been ac- 
customed to the ways of the great Austrian court, 
and who had all his life been involved in some inter- 
national intrigue or other, stood forth as the only 
person who clearly comprehended the small game 
that was being played all around him. 

As to his military capacities, which his contemp- 
oraries derided with such delight, they must have 
been in evidence at some time or other. Of course it 
frequently occurred that princes of the blood were 
made field-marshals just on general principles. But 
such soldiers rarely ventured forth into a war on 
the heathen Turk or into the bloody War of the 
Austrian Succession. The fact that Maria Theresa 
let the Duke go to the Republic only after a long 
period of hesitation also seems to indicate that she 
believed his services to be valuable. 

It is true that after he once got to Holland the 
Duke never had much chance to show what he was 
worth as a soldier. He clearly saw that the neg- 
lected Dutch army, under the existing circum- 
stances, was past the stage of remedy, and he never 
even tried to introduce reforms. His principal duty 
he considered to consist in serving William IV, his 
widow, and later on his son, as a general political 
adviser. That he played this role entirely out of 
Platonic devotion to the House of Orange is as 
little true as the claim, made by some of his con- 



THE PRINCESS ANNA 151 

temporaries, that he entered the service of the 
RepubHc in order to ruin the country and thereby 
obhge her foreign enemies. We think that the solu- 
tion of the problem is a much simpler one. The 
Duke was an impecunious little German prince and 
he had to make a living. The Republic paid him at 
first twenty thousand and later on sixty thousand 
guilders a year for his services. That was a con- 
siderable compensation, and for this reason the 
Duke came and for this reason he stayed on. 

On the whole, however, the former field-marshal 
did his duty well and served his masters faithfully. 
Without his particular services it is very doubtful 
whether the Princes of Orange could have main- 
tained themselves as long as they actually did. 
Until the end of his life, William IV had the most 
complete faith in the devotion of the Duke. But 
no sooner had William died than the Duke found 
himself in a difficult position. The Governess did 
not care for him at all. The fact that first the 
Estates of Holland and then those of the other 
provinces had made provisions to have the Duke of 
Brunswick appointed as the guardian of William V, 
in case the Governess should die before her son 
came of age, was not conducive to a better under- 
standing between her Royal Highness and her late 
husband's protege. 

Neither did the English Princess like to confess 
her inferiority in political sagacity by asking the 
advice of a little German Duke. But, as we have 



152 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

seen, after a few years the Duke was the only per- 
son at the Httle court in the Hague who seemed to 
know what he wanted. Furthermore, he was the 
only one without sons and nephews and cousins for 
whom he had to provide, and thereby he was in 
pleasant contrast to the other courtiers, who were 
all working hard looking after the interests of their 
own families. Gradually the Princess was obliged 
to go to the Duke whenever she really needed any- 
thing done. The Duke never forced his advice upon 
her, and was clever enough to make her believe that 
whatever he proposed had emanated from her own 
brain. In this way after a short while he managed 
to remove all distrust on the part of the Princess, 
and the relations between the Governess and the 
Duke became mutually friendly and helpful and 
remained so until the death of the former. 

But even with his support the Princess experi- 
enced difficult years. A good many industries 
which had been languishing for a long time now 
went out of existence altogether. Not a single 
month passed but one or two petitions were sent 
her asking that something be done for the coun- 
try's commercial interests. The merchantmen, un- 
protected by a fleet, suffered continual detention 
by foreign nations and most especially by England. 
But where was the Governess going to find money 
to build ships, when the Province of Holland, the 
richest of all, was seventy millions in arrears.'^ 

The situation was difficult enough when in 1756 



THE PRINCESS ANNA 153 

it was made even more precarious by the outbreak 
of the Seven Years' War. Soon all the powers of 
Europe were mixed up in this quarrel. France and 
England began a war on American soil for colonial 
supremacy in the northern part of the American 
continent. Again the Republic was asked to sup- 
port England according to the stipulations of the 
treaty of 1678. The Governess, as had her husband 
before her, supported the demands of the English 
government. That was the moment for which the 
opposition had been waiting. The Regents again 
felt themselves strong enough to come out in the 
open against the young Stadholder and his mother, 
who was acting as his guardian and as Regent of the 
country. " Of course," so they said, "the Governess 
is supporting the demand of England. What else 
could we expect of an English Princess.'^" 

Now in this there was no truth whatever. The 
Governess never became unfaithful to the interests 
of her adopted country. But she remembered how 
much ill-will the halting attitude of the Republic 
had caused during the War of the Austrian Suc- 
cession, and quite rightly decided that a country, 
in order not to perish, must stick to its solemn 
promises. 

But the opposition pretended not to believe in her 
honest intentions. The fact that the country was 
experiencing hard times gave the opposition the 
support of thousands of discontented merchants, 
who violently opposed the spending of money on 



154 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

military preparations. The Princess's supporters 
were also reminded that on a previous occasion aid 
to England had meant war with France and that no 
true patriot could wish to repeat such an experi- 
ment. It was argued that this was a colonial war, 
and that no aid need be given to England as long as 
the fighting did not occur in Europe. 

At this moment the opposition received a valu- 
able ally in the French ambassador in the Hague. 
The old Regime in France may have been guilty of 
many sins, but it certainly produced very clever 
diplomats. The French representative in the Re- 
public, the Count d'Affray, was one of these. He 
had been sent to the Republic with instructions to 
do as much damage as possible to the friendship 
which existed between the Republic and England, 
and to try to induce the former to conclude a treaty 
of friendship with France. Not that the Republic 
was considered so highly as a fighting power, but she 
still had lots of money, and France, already on the 
downward path and on the way to financial ruin, 
needed money more than it needed armies. 

The French ambassador had from the very be- 
ginning turned towards the Regents and had 
stayed away as much as possible from the court of 
the Stadholder. He knew that material advantages 
more than sentimental considerations would count 
with his Dutch friends. He, therefore, held out 
very desirable visions of a preferential tariff which 
might be granted to the Republic as a reward for 



THE PRINCESS ANNA 155 

good behavior. Good behavior in this case meant 
another refusal to comply with the stipulation of the 
English treaty. But the day drew near on which 
England expected the Dutch aid. As the Republic 
pretended not to possess the necessary ships with 
which to transport her six thousand auxiliary 
troops, England offered to send the ships herself. 

In March, 1751, English ships actually appeared 
before the Dutch coast. But the Estates General 
asked for further delay and for more time in which 
to consider the matter. During three whole weeks 
the deliberations went on. Then the English com- 
mander grew tired of waiting any longer and de- 
parted. 

England considered the Republic's act as a posi- 
tive refusal, and henceforth treated Dutch ships 
like those of any other foreign nation and searched 
them and confiscated them without any regard for 
the feelings of her unfaithful ally. The Regents, 
however (and the French ambassador), considered 
that they had won a great victory against the Gov- 
erness (and England), and they seem to have been 
wholly ignorant of the dangerous game they were 
playing, nor do they seem to have understood the 
relative strength of the two nations engaged in the 
war. 

But when the war in America went on for many 
years, and the Dutch merchants continued to 
suffer from English privateers, the blame for all 
their losses was speedily put on the Governess. The 



156 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

petitions for help increased, and from all over the 
country delegations came to sing a doleful dirge of 
the great losses that were being sustained by the 
Dutch business men. That they and they alone 
were to blame for this state of affairs seems not to 
have entered into their minds. 

And while they were complaining in Holland 
about their terrible losses, they were doing a splen- 
did smuggling business in the American colonies. 
Both sides needed powder and guns, and to both 
sides did the Dutch merchants sell their wares. So 
profitable was this trade that it was figured that if 
three ships were sent out and only one arrived at 
the port of destination, the enterprising merchant 
was still well rewarded for his troubles. 

The poor Governess, abused from all sides and 
abused in a way which greatly transgressed all 
standards of decent political debate, began to show 
signs of ill-health. She had never been very robust. 
Like her husband she had worked hard but with- 
out system, and had lost her strength on perfectly 
futile questions. On the 12th of January, 1759, she 
died. 

No sooner had the Princess disappeared from the 
scene than we notice a sudden cessation in the con- 
tinual stream of complaints from the side of the 
established business interests. To all appearances 
the Regents were going to rule the country, at least 
until William V should be of age. They took good 
care not to continue their agitation for a fleet which 



THE PRINCESS ANNA 157 

until then they had supported so vigorously. Now 
that they might have to carry the responsibility for 
the expenses thereof themselves, they intimated 
that, perhaps after all, a fleet was not absolutely 
necessary. 



CHAPTER V 

. THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 

William V was eleven years old when his mother 
died. Seven more years had to elapse before he 
would be of age. In her testament the Princess 
Anna had appointed her father, King George II, 
and her mother-in-law, the Princess Mary Louise 
of Hesse, guardians of the little Prince. As we have 
seen before, the Estates of Holland were interested 
to keep their future stadholder under their direct 
care; the two august relatives were not allowed to 
exercise anything but a distant influence, though the 
Duke of Brunswick, who resided in the Hague, was 
to be William's direct tutor and guardian. 

The Duke was also made provisional commander- 
in-chief of both the army and navy. It should be 
remembered that at that moment the Duke was 
still a favorite with the Regents, and used to re- 
ceive extraordinary grants from the different estates 
in recognition of his valuable services to the country. 

There was some difficulty about the right of mak- 
ing civil and military appointments. This right 
was invested in the Stadholder, and gave him his 
great power in the councils of the different cities. 
It could not well be exercised by a child nor could 
it be entrusted to a foreigner. The Estates there- 
fore declared that for the sake of greater safety 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 159 

this power should revert into their own hands until 
William should become of age. As there was now 
nobody who could successfully oppose the Estates, 
they saw their wishes fulfilled. For the next seven 
years the combined legislative and executive power 
was once more in the hands of the Regents. 

In Friesland, however, the Princess Mary main- 
tained an independent stadholdership and con- 
tinued to exercise the right of appointment until 
the day that her grandchild became eighteen years 
of age. 

Several years before, at the death of William IV, 
the old Princess had at once tried to replace her 
daughter-in-law by a board of guardians, in which 
she herself would have had great influence. Now 
when it appeared that, at least during seven years, 
the Duke and the Estates of Holland would con- 
trol the fate of her small grandchild, the Princess 
Mary made another attempt to counteract their 
influence by proposing a regency which was to be 
exercised by William's older sister, the Princess 
Carolina. This young Princess was in her seven- 
teenth year and reputed to be a good deal brighter 
than her small brother. She was engaged to be 
married to a German Prince of Nassau- Weilburg. 
(This Nassau was not a relative of the Dutch Nas- 
saus.) Her appointment as regent during her 
brother's minority would of course have allowed 
her grandmother to play a leading role in the affairs 
of state. Her future marriage to a German prince 



160 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

would have brought another foreigner into the af- 
fairs of the RepubKc. With all due respect to the 
Duke of Brunswick, no more foreigners were wanted, 
and the plan was opposed from all sides. 

The last chance of success of this plan was fin- 
ally destroyed by a most terrific scandal, which 
just at this time occurred in one of the leading 
Friesland families. Onno Zwier van Haren, leader 
of the Orangist party in Friesland, a great man in 
the local politics of his province and not without 
influence in those of the Republic, was accused by 
his son-in-law of a most atrocious crime. It was 
a most unsavory affair, of which to this day we do 
not know the exact truth. And unfortunately for 
the Stadholder and his adherents, the van Haren 
family insisted upon dragging the whole question 
into a publicity which one would have thought im- 
possible before the day of the "yellow press." It 
was not long before every citizen of the Republic 
was convinced that there was something rotten in 
the most prominent family of those regarded as 
faithful advisers of the old Princess in Leeuwarden. 
Any future attempts of Mary Louise's adherents 
to obtain some influence over affairs which in- 
volved the interest of her grandchildren could be 
met with references to this unfortunate occurrence 
and hints that good government as well as charity 
began at home. 

With the grandmother's power removed, the 
Duke of Brunswick had everything his own way. 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 161 

Later, when the Duke was persona ingratissimay his 
enemies said that he had started the scandal and 
had given it its pubHcity in order to rid himself of 
all interference with his own educational methods. 
There is no good ground for the accusation. That 
he was not sorry to see van Haren disappear from 
the scene of political life is quite clear. The rela- 
tions between the two had never been cordial, and 
according to all evidences this was not so much the 
fault of the Duke as that of van Haren himself, who 
was quite unbearable in his pride and arrogance. 

As guardian of the Prince, the Duke saw that his 
first duty was to reorganize completely the finances 
of his ward. Accordingly he started out to bring 
some unity into the administration of the many 
estates to which William, through the death of a 
number of his relatives, had become the sole heir. 
These estates were spread all over Germany and 
were managed in a very unsatisfactory way. The 
Duke reorganized them so successfully that within 
a few years they produced an annual income of two 
million guilders. This sum made William one of 
the richest princes of his time and the richest man 
by far of his country. 

As commander-in-chief, the Duke tried also to 
start a few reforms in the army. The new tactics 
used by Frederic the Great in his wars with Austria 
had caused an entire reversal of the old methods. 
But the Duke despaired of saving an army which 
was so evidently beyond hope of salvation. He did 



162 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

not press his reforms, and the few soldiers who were 
still kept in the service of the Republic were dis- 
turbed no more. 

Brunswick managed the internal politics of the 
country with a great deal of skill. The fact that 
the Regents were again invested with the right of 
appointment proved to be very beneficial to the 
cause of the Stadholder. The right of appointment 
gives the possessor thereof one friend as against ten 
enemies. The lucky man who gets the job sings his 
praises. The ten others who applied in vain swear 
dire revenge and hasten to join the opposition. 
As long as the Stadholder had exercised the right 
of appointment himself, he had come in for the 
personal hatred of the disappointed office-seekers. 
Large numbers of this species of implacable human- 
ity had gone over to the Regents. Now that their 
fate depended upon the Regents, the disappointed 
ones were again driven back into the camp of the 
Stadholder. In this way William enjoyed during 
his youth a peace of mind and a popularity which 
he was never to know after he had celebrated his 
sixteenth birthday. 

As for questions of foreign policy, they did not 
come up during the period from 1759 to 1766. The 
Estates General carefully kept the country out 
of all international complications. England con- 
tinued to search Dutch ships and confiscate Dutch 
goods whenever these were considered to be contra- 
band of war. The only remedy against this treat- 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 163 

ment would have been the possession of a strong 
fleet. But nobody was willing to pay for such a 
fleet, and instead of defending themselves honor- 
ably, the Dutch merchants continued to make up 
their deficit by extending their smuggling opera- 
tions. 

On the 8th of March, 1766, WiUiam V came of 
age, and the Duke of Brunswick retired from his 
position as guardian of the Prince. It was consid- 
ered that he had done his duty towards his ward 
and towards the country so well that the Estates 
General thanked him officially for his valuable serv- 
ices and presented him with six hundred thousand 
guilders, to which sum all the provinces contrib- 
uted. The Estates General also instructed the 
Republic's representative in Vienna to try to in- 
duce Maria Theresa to allow her field-marshal to re- 
main a few years more in the service of the United 
Netherlands. After some hesitation the Empress 
gave her consent, and though Brunswick was no 
longer guardian he continued to direct the affairs 
of the young Stadholder as if the Prince were still 
a minor. 

Jorissen, in his excellent biography of William V, 
refutes the often repeated statement that Bruns- 
wick must have corrupted the child who was en- 
trusted to his care and must have kept the boy back- 
ward so that he would be able to exercise greater 
influence over him. "It has never been proved," so 
Jorissen says, "that William,_even under the most 



164 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

efficient of pedagogues, could have been changed 
into anything else from what he finally turned out 
to be." 

William V was exactly what we could have ex- 
pected of the child of his parents. Neither his fa- 
ther nor his mother had been strong physically or of 
imposing appearance. His mother had always car- 
ried the signs of the smallpox, which had destroyed 
her good looks when she was a child. His father, 
who had suffered from epileptic fits when a child, 
had been an insignificant looking personage, with- 
out much vigor or physical endurance. 

William V inherited the physical weaknesses of 
his parents. He was easily fatigued and became 
sleepy after the slightest exertion. He was clumsy 
in appearance, and apparently did not know what 
to do with his hands and feet. This clumsiness may 
have been the result of shyness. It was shyness 
which kept him smiling when he did not intend to 
smile at all. In conversation he was apt to bluster, 
and his perpetual grin made people think him a 
good deal less intelligent than he actually was. 

It cannot be denied that the Prince possessed a 
certain sort of intelligence, but unfortunately it was 
a sort which did not do him the slightest good. 
Like most of his ancestors he was very fond of 
mathematical studies, and he had more than ordin- 
ary ability in this line of work. This mathematical 
turn of mind had been of great use to such generals 
as Maurice or Frederick Henry, but William V had 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 165 

little chance to apply his knowledge to the solution 
of strategical problems. His great power of mem- 
ory he merely used to fill his brain with all sorts of 
miscellaneous knowledge. But as he never had ac- 
quired the art of forgetting things, his brain soon 
resembled a storehouse, so full of all sorts of art- 
icles that whenever something was needed, it could 
not be found anywhere except after prolonged 
search. 

The Prince had an innate love of detail. He 
wanted to attend to everything himself and to in- 
vestigate the smallest items of the questions which 
came up for his decision. Great statesmen have 
usually been able to accomplish much because they 
knew how to choose their subordinates and were 
wise enough to leave all the non-essential things to 
these assistants. William, on the contrary, never 
left anything to the decision of his advisers except 
the large questions of state. As he had very little 
knowledge of human nature, and was unable to 
judge the character of those whom he called into his 
councils, the large questions were apt to be decided 
in a way most harmful to the prestige of the Stad- 
holder. As one of his contemporaries said, "The 
Prince has but one system. It consists in doing 
everything unsystematically." The Stadholder 
spent most of his life in doing things which could 
have been done quite as efficiently by a young clerk 
for ten guilders a week. 

William V was very proud. This was nothing 



166 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

new. The House of Orange had always been proud. 
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries its 
members had much to make them feel that they 
belonged to quite an exceptional race of men. The 
first stadholders, however, had been men with a 
good deal of common sense. Their pride had rarely 
interfered with their interests. But in all such mat- 
ters the Frisian branch of the Nassaus seems to have 
been just a little bit different from that branch 
which died out with Wilham III. The members of 
this collateral branch were continually allowing 
their pride to interfere with their own interests and 
those of the country. In many ways they were a 
caricature of the virile descendants of the first great 
William. Maurice and Frederick Henry spent the 
better half of their lives in camp and on horseback; 
they lived hard, and loved and hated with no at- 
tempt to disguise their feelings. With all their faults 
they were positive and constructive characters. The 
members of the northern branch of the family seem 
on the whole to have lacked the vices of their grand- 
uncles, but they were deficient in their virtues. They 
were, with the exception of the later King William I, 
men of no force of character; not very bad and not 
very good, not very stupid and not very clever, with- 
out any fast friends or any bitter enemies; men of 
unobtrusive mediocrity. 

William V was undoubtedly the worst type of the 
family. Most unfortunately he lived in a time of 
transition. During his lifetime the great change 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 167 

whicli produced the modern world out of mediseval 
society took place. It is doubtful whether William 
ever understood the importance of all the many 
things that were happening around him. They an- 
noyed him considerably. He felt unhappy that the 
world should be as it was. His own position in rela- 
tion to the things that occurred about him never 
became quite clear to him. 

Finally, we must mention one other unfortunate 
characteristic of the Prince. He could not forgive 
easily. He was not revengeful; his character was not 
positive enough for any such extreme. But when 
in the course of daily life some one opposed him in 
his political activities he would never forgive that 
man's actions. When in the turmoil of politics it 
happened, a few years later, that this same person 
was suddenly found to be on the side of the Stad- 
holder, the latter could not forget the past and 
would refuse to have anything to do with his new 
supporter. Unfortunately this Prince, who never 
could forget the smallest slight to his dignity, con- 
stantly forgot those who sacrificed everything for 
his cause. 

During the troublesome years that were to fol- 
low, a number of men and women showed great 
faithfulness to the Stadholder. They often suffered 
for their principles with exile and confiscation of 
their goods. In such cases the Stadholder never 
came to their rescue. He took all services rendered 
to him and to his house for granted, and did not 



168 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

consider himself bound to reward his loyal subjects. 
It will be easily understood that a prince of such 
character and such personality, or rather lack of 
personality, was at great disadvantage during the 
latter half of the eighteenth century. 

William's career as stadholder commenced with 
a serious blunder. It is little consolation that the 
direct responsibility therefor rests with the Duke 
of Brunswick. The fact remains that his first offi- 
cial act did great damage to his position. William 
was the only stadholder who was born as hered- 
itary stadholder. Therefore when his father died, 
he succeeded him automatically, just as in a mon- 
archy the dead monarch is succeeded by the crown 
prince. But instead of this, the Duke of Brunswick 
asked the estates of the different provinces to give 
William an official appointment. In this way it was 
once more clear that the Estates and not the Stad- 
holder was the highest power in the Republic. 

Why did the Duke do this ? He must have 
known that there really was no need for such pro- 
ceeding. The truth is that the Duke was trying 
to serve both the Stadholder and the Regents, and 
so to keep on good terms with both. By asking for 
an official appointment for William he rendered a 
service to the Regents which he hoped they would 
not forget in times to come. 

After this bad beginning the Duke made himself 
guilty of another act which, though it remained a 
secret for a score of years, finally leaked out and 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 169 

did the greatest harm to the cause of the Stad- 
holder. It has happened before in history that 
young princes when they were called to the throne 
were so overwhelmed by their duties that they put 
themselves into the hands of trusted councillors. 
But it probably has never occurred that a prince, 
almost before he has assumed his dignity, binds 
himself hand and foot to some one person of his 
court, and practically renounces all independence 
of action for his future life. 

This is exactly what happened. On the 3d of 
May, 1766, the Prince signed a document which is 
unique. ^^ The document had been drawn up in offi- 
cial style by van Bleiswyk, the Pensionaris of Delft. 
In this the Prince expressed his sincere desire to 
keep the Duke of Brunswick with him always as his 
adviser in military and civil matters. In return the 
Duke of Brunswick promised under oath to give 
the Prince his advice upon all occasions when it was 
wanted and to support him in the maintenance of 
all his ancient rights and prerogatives. The fatal 
part of the agreement, however, came near the end. 
The Prince promised never to hold the Duke at any 
time responsible for any advice which the latter 
might give him according to the regulations of this 
contract. In other words, the Duke of Brunswick 
was appointed the confidential adviser of the Stad- 
holder of Holland and at the same time he was pro- 
mised immunity from the consequences of any ad- 
vice which he might give. Without imputing any 



170 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

bad motives to the Duke, and with full recognition 
of the fact that he had to do with a singularly in- 
capable young man, it has to be granted that the 
document was a highly dangerous experiment. 

The Duke recognized this fact himself, and asked 
that the transaction between him and his former 
pupil be kept secret. This was impossible. Van 
Bleiswyk, the man who had drawn up the document, 
knew about it. So did Stein, the Raadpensionaris 
of the Estates of Holland. So did the British Min- 
ister at the Hague and the Count Bentinck, one of 
the faithful partisans of the Prince. And as was in- 
evitable in the Republic, with its complicated ma- 
chinery of state, the existence of the document was 
soon known to the leaders of the Regents, though, as 
it was not in the least to their interest to have it 
known at that time, they kept their information to 
themselves. The large mass of the people certainly 
did not know anything about it until eighteen years 
later, when the existence of this agreement for 
purely political reasons was brought up for discus- 
sion in the meeting of the Estates of Zeeland. Hav- 
ing in this way secured for himself the position of 
"The Indispensable Man," the Duke now turned 
his attention towards providing William with a 
suitable wife. 

Up to that time the Princes of Orange had usu- 
ally married daughters of the Kings of England. 
The Duke, who was a German, encouraged a mar- 
riage with a German princess, and the mass of the 



r: 




WILLIAM V AND THE PRINCESS WILHELMINA LEAVE AMS 

After aa engra^i 




;DAM AFTER THEIR FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT, JUNE 4, 1768 

by S. Fokke 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 171 

people, with whom at that particular moment Eng- 
land was not in the least popular, supported him. 
The fame of Frederic the Great, who within a score 
of years had changed Prussia into a powerful nation, 
was then at its height. A wedding with a Prussian 
princess seemed to bring the Republic into closer 
relations with one of England's enemies, and as such 
was not unwelcome. On the 4th of October, 1767, 
William V married Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina, 
daughter of Prince August of Prussia, the brother 
of Frederic the Great. 

The Princess was sixteen years old, pretty and 
vivacious. She had lived a quiet life far away from 
the court of her uncle. As a matter of fact, that fa- 
mous uncle, who did not care greatly for women, and 
quite dreaded their opinion on political questions, 
had carefully kept his small niece ignorant of all 
affairs of state. Only now that she was to marry 
the rich Stadholder of the rich Republic, and in 
doing so was to become a part of international poli- 
tics herself, did Frederic pay some attention to the 
young lady. 

Frederic had very little respect for the Republic. 
He knew exactly the dilapidated condition of her 
armies and of her fleet. But the Republic was again 
possessed of the one thing which Prussia lacked, 
ready money, and so she was not to be despised. 
As to the internal political situation in the Repub- 
lic, the Prussian King knew, what everybody else 
knew, that the country was hanging in the balance 



172 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

between France and England, and that, though it 
had not yet officially broken with its old ally Eng- 
land, it might at any moment do so. He also knew 
that the traditional policy of the House of Orange 
had been to side with England, while the Regents 
were now openly favoring an entente cordiale with 
France. 

It was of great importance to the King of Prussia 
that his niece should know what to do in her new 
surroundings, and therefore he gave her as com^ 
panion a trusted old Prussian noblewoman, the 
Baroness von Danckelmann; she was to be dame 
d'honneur to the Princess and confidential adviser; 
at the same time she kept Frederic informed of 
what was going on in the Republic. 

In November of the same year the happy couple 
left Berlin and moved to the Hague, accompanied 
by their dame d'honneur, who according to all re- 
ports had an abominable temper and added but 
little to the charm of the life of the court in the 
Hague. 

The marriage of the Prince, however, was a happy 
one. The Princess was her husband's superior in 
everything, in character and in ability, in energy 
and in courage. But she stuck to him faithfully 
through all his vicissitudes, tended him when he fell 
sick at an early age, and followed him into exile. 
She survived him by many years, and lived to see 
her oldest son, to whom she had been a very good 
mother, installed upon the throne of the new King- 



THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK 173 

dom of the Netherlands. The first few years of her 
married hfe passed by quite uneventfully. There 
is a certain element of humor in the situation of 
the young couple. An old Austrian field-marshal 
and an old Prussian Baroness had the actual man- 
agement of the family of the Dutch Stadholder. 
The humor, however, does not seem to have struck 
the husband and wife, who were busily engaged in 
watching the increasing population of their nurs- 
ery. The country was at peace, dividends came in 
with most agreeable regularity, and everybody 
was happy. This lasted for eight years. Then came 
another of those terrible shocks which rudely awak- 
ened the country from its slumbers and threw it 
suddenly into the middle of serious international 
complications. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

In the English colonies in America there had been 
for a period of more than fifteen years an ever- 
increasing misunderstanding between the colonies 
and the mother country, or such authorities as the 
mother country insisted upon sending out to govern 
her transatlantic possessions. As long as the French 
had been masters of Canada and had been a threat- 
ening neighbor to the thirteen English colonies along 
the coast of the Atlantic, the British government 
had been obliged to retain the good will of her 
subjects across the water and had been forced to 
consider seriously many of their demands. On the 
other hand, the colonists had depended a great deal 
upon the military assistance of the mother country, 
and had therefore been compelled to be more mod- 
est in their desires and less open in the expression 
of their many grievances than they would other- 
wise have been. 

But after England had been victorious in Canada 
and had added the French colony to her empire, 
there was no longer need of cooperation between 
the English in America and the English in Brit- 
ain, and both were at liberty to air their grievances. 
Unfortunately, just at this critical moment, King 
George III ascended the throne of England, and 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 175 

his stubbornness and the dullness of the ministers 
with whom he surrounded himseK kindled the small 
flame of discontent into an all-consuming fire. 

We will now endeavor to make clear what a 
quarrel between colonists on the outskirts of the 
civilized world and the most powerful nation of that 
time had to do with the history of the Republic. 

The quarrel in America was quite unique. Most 
revolutions take place as a result of long continued 
suffering. Their ultimate purpose is to free the 
oppressed masses from an unbearable wrong. The 
American Revolution was not preceded by any 
such period of national suffering. No other revolu- 
tionists have ever been quite so prosperous or so 
free from political restraint as were the men who 
started the movement which reached its logical con- 
clusion in the Declaration of Independence of July 
4, 1776. 

One of the causes of the ill-feeling between 
colonists and mother country was, of course, a senti- 
mental one. England at that time was essentially 
an aristocratic country. The colonies at that time, 
before their natural riches had made them a pluto- 
cracy, were essentially a democracy. Many char- 
acteristics of the one annoyed the other extremely. 
The overbearing donkeyesque type of man which 
composed the English garrisons was the only sort 
most colonists ever knew or saw of the people of the 
home country. On the other hand, the Englishman 
who stayed at home got information about his 



176 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

brother across the sea from sources which depicted 
the aforementioned brother as a sort of sharp horse- 
dealer, who always came out on top in a bargain, who 
above all hated to pay for anything which did not 
bring him in an immediate return of a hundred per 
cent or more. As for the English ministers, they 
followed the time-honored British custom of know- 
ing nothing about either their friends or their ene- 
mies in foreign parts, and treated their subjects on 
the American continent with that mixture of igno- 
rance and insolence which brought England infin- 
itely more trouble than a direct oppression would 
have done. 

The difference which existed between colonists 
and mother country were not such as were irre- 
mediable. On the contrary, the majority of the peo- 
ple in the colonies were decidedly inclined to remain 
faithful to the mother country. But a policy which 
consisted of a prolonged series of dull blunders on 
the part of England gradually widened the breach, 
until at last separation was the only possible solu- 
tion of the problem. 

Now anything which had to do with England, or, 
more particularly, anything which seemed to indi- 
cate that it might do England harm, was followed 
in the Republic of the United Netherlands with the 
same enthusiasm with which in our own time Eng- 
land watches a general strike in Germany, or vice 
versa. 

We only need to read the pamphlet literature of 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 177 

that day to see how England was on the nerves of 
the people in the Republic, and how they welcomed 
the slightest sign of anything which indicated that 
the proud Briton was to get into fresh difficulties. 
The manifestations of discontent among the Ameri- 
can colonists were followed with great interest by 
all those in the Dutch Republic who read the papers, 
which meant the vast majority of the population. 

The somewhat bombastic, if sound, rhetoric of 
the leaders of the American colonists, with their 
continual allusions to Liberty and the Rights of Man 
and the People, were all the more appreciated in a 
Republic which several centuries before, with less 
talk but more action, had embodied similar senti- 
ments in the abjuration of their lawful sovereign. 
The first manifest signs of an approaching storm in 
the American community became known in the 
Republic at just the moment when they could be 
hailed with the most joy and sympathy; for just 
about this time the second centenary of the relief of 
the town of Leyden from the Spaniards had been 
solemnly celebrated. A generation which itself per- 
forms no valorous deeds usually loves dearly to 
dwell upon the great virtues of its ancestors and to 
glorify its vigorous past. The relief of Leyden and 
the foundation of the university in that city as a 
reward for the citizens' heroic defense had been 
commemorated with great pomp and circumstance. 
The Stadholder and his family had been present. 
Much rhetoric of the particular kind in use on such 



c^ 



178 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

occasions had been indulged in by leading profess- 
ors and statesmen. Liberty had been the keynote 
of the speeches ; and after doing honor to the ances- 
tors who had first established this liberty, there had 
been a good many compliments to the progeny who 
were now enjoying the fruits of their ancestors' 
labors in such a worthy way. 

The next year, before the enthusiasm had quite 
died down, the first news (slightly exaggerated) of 
the battle of Lexington had reached the Republic. 
"The hirelings of a Tyrant beaten by the humble 
farmers of an indignant country!" What news 
could be more welcome, especially when the beaten 
"Tyrant" was the deadly rival across the North 
Sea. 

As to the humble farmer who fired the "shot 
heard round the world," he was at that moment 
rather fashionable in Europe. The ocean is a broad 
piece of water which it then took from three to four 
weeks to cross. What happened upon the vast 
shores of the great American continent was but 
vaguely clear to most people in Europe. But it was 
a period when the highest classes of society dabbled 
in theories about "liberty" and "civic virtue," 
very much the same way that, in our own day, they 
dabble a bit in socialism. Rousseau and the French 
Encyclopedists were not writing in vain. Their 
theories were the property of everybody who pre- 
tended to be au courant of the intellectual interests 
of the day. The American farmer and politician 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 179 

wlio managed the revolution against England were 
soon endowed with all those superlative virtues 
which it was felt could only survive in men who had 
always lived a natural life, far removed from the 
corruption of society and in the uplifting purity 
of the primeval forest. 

For the Republic, however, besides these senti- 
mental considerations, there were others of a more 
practical nature. Of course during the first few 
years, when it was not in the least clear whether 
the American rebellion would end with the defeat 
of the colonists or would degenerate into an endless 
guerrilla warfare, there was no hope of eventual gain. 

When after a few years it seemed that the Amer- 
ican colonies were actually going to start a new 
commonwealth, entirely independent of the mother 
country, large vistas of new commercial advantages 
opened themselves to the Dutch merchants. 

Up to the beginning of the revolution the Amer- 
ican colonists had been obliged to trade directly 
with England alone, and England had been careful 
that the colonists should not enter upon business 
which would compete with the business of her sub- 
jects at home. If they gained their independence, 
the colonists would then be able to deal with whom- 
ever they pleased, and the Republic hoped to get 
her share of the American trade. During the last 
thirty years so many old fields of enterprise had 
been gradually lost to her that a new opening 
would be extremely welcome. 



180 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

This practical sentiment was reciprocated in 
America. Those excellent colonists were at all 
times infinitely more practical than the European 
sentimentalist could imagine them to be. They 
were practical politicians. The theory of their revo- 
lution never for a moment allowed them to forget 
the bread-and-butter side of it. Their hard com- 
mon sense never allowed them to go off into any ex- 
tremes which did not stand fundamentally upon a 
sound basis of "one dollar plus one dollar are two 
dollars." The French Revolution, with its sub- 
lime indifference to the material side of life and 
with its exaggerated sentiment about uplifting the 
whole of the human race to its own ideals, was con- 
ducted upon entirely different principles. 

The American revolutionists knew what they 
wanted better than other rebels, either before or 
after, have known. They did one thing at a time, 
and did not waste their energies in senseless dreams 
of the far distant future. For the moment their 
most imperative need was guns, and materials of 
war generally. They had no regular fleet and few 
merchant ships. On the sea they were at the mercy 
of the English fleet. The Dutch smugglers were, 
therefore, of great benefit to them in supplying them 
with the necessities of war. From the small island 
of St. Eustatius in the Antilles — a possession of 
the West India Company — a regular smuggling 
trade was maintained with American ports. The 
island had a fine harbor and its storehouses were 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 181 

filled with millions of dollars' worth of goods, ready 
for transportation to forbidden harbors — either 
Spanish or American. 

This trade was quite as detrimental to the inter- 
ests of England as the American export of mules for 
South Africa was detrimental to the interests of the 
late Transvaal Republic. In August of the year 
1775, therefore, the British government instructed 
its representative in the Hague to address himself 
to the Estates General with the request that this 
smuggling from a Dutch harbor should forthwith 
be ended. 

The Estates General expressed their regret at the 
matter and promised to attend to it at once. They 
promulgated an edict which forbade the export of 
guns and all materials of war from Dutch harbors 
for a period of six months. A fine of one thousand 
guilders was threatened to be levied upon those who 
should act contrary to this law. After the first six 
months this edict was prolonged for another half- 
year. 

As for its practical results, they were nil. There 
was too much profit in the business to stop it with 
the mere threat of a fine. Furthermore, all the 
tricks of this particular trade were well known, and 
how could the Estates General surmise that barrels 
of butter directed to a French port in reality con- 
tained powder and were bound for an American 
harbor? They could have discovered this, of course, 
if they had really wished, but they hesitated to in- 



182 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

terfere too seriously with a form of business activ- 
ity, which, however objectionable, brought so much 
gain to many of their fellow citizens and to them- 
selves. 

When the British government noticed how inef- 
fectual the Estates General had been in prevent- 
ing a continuation of this detrimental smuggling 
business, it decided to take matters into its own 
hands and to defend its own interests as it thought 
best. The English fleet in the Caribbean Sea was 
strengthened with a number of new ships, and all 
Dutch vessels were searched, and if found to contain 
contraband of war were brought to English ports 
and there sold. This did not improve the feeling 
between the two countries. England resented the 
Republic's indifference. The Republic resented Eng- 
land's interference. 

France, however, looked on with interest and re- 
joiced. Its minister in the Hague was busier than 
ever. If only the Republic would give up all her 
treaties with England, which for many years had 
existed only in name, how beneficial it would be, he 
argued, to the true interests of the Republic; and so 
on, and so on. 

These old treaties were ere long to be the cause 
of another misunderstanding between London and 
the Hague, and this time of a very serious nature. 
It all came about in this way. 

England needed troops for its war in America. 
The mother country could not provide all the men 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 183 

necessary for the many military enterprises in 
which England was engaged at that particular mo- 
ment. Therefore, as is well known, it bought troops 
from German princes. Thousands of German sol- 
diers were sent to America, where they died in order 
that the fountains of the Elector of Hesse might 
spout. 

As is equally well known, these good Germans 
had no great interest either one way or the other in 
the conflict into which they had been dragged for 
so many marks a head. Being Germans, they did 
their duty, but no more; and when able to do so 
conveniently made their peace with their friend, the 
enemy, and retired from the field of battle. Eng- 
land, therefore, looked around for more satisfactory 
troops, and then remembered the existence of a 
Scottish brigade, which was stationed in the Re- 
public. 

This Scottish brigade had come to Holland in the 
year 1577 to help against the Spaniards and had 
ever since remained in the Dutch service. The sol- 
diers no longer consisted exclusively of Scotchmen. 
The officers, however, were all native Scotchmen, 
and as a whole the brigade had maintained its for- 
eign character. In time of war it was supposed to 
number three thousand men. But during the many 
years of peace, as a matter of economy, the num- 
ber had been allowed to dwindle down to less than 
one thousand. 

The British government now asked for the loan 



184 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of these troops. The acquiring of a thousand more 
soldiers was doubtless not their only motive, as in 
asking the Estates General for this loan they would 
have a chance to test the true feelings of their Dutch 
neighbors. In the matter of the smuggling trade of 
St. Eustatius, the Estates General had shown what 
the English considered bad faith. They would now 
have an opportunity to prove that their real attitude 
towards England was not a hostile one. In October 
of the year 1775, the English minister in the Hague 
informed the Stadholder that the King of England 
requested "as a favor" the loan of the Scottish 
brigade. In November the Stadholder informed 
the Estates General that the King of England, 
through the English minister in the Hague, had re- 
quested the loan of the Scottish brigade to be used 
in the war with the American colonists. At the 
same time he let their High-and-Mightinesses know 
that it had pleased the King of England to offer to 
the Republic a regiment of Hannoverian troops in ex- 
change for the Scotchmen. After the war, the Scot- 
tish regiment, or whatever remained of it, would be 
promptly returned, the Hannoverians would march 
back to their German home, and everything would 
be as it had been before. In case the Estates Gen- 
eral did not care for these particular Hannoverian 
troops. His Majesty was ready to furnish them the 
money necessary to equip a Dutch regiment. From 
the English point of view this was a very decent 
offer, and it was couched in such a form that a 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 185 

refusal was practically impossible. Knowing the 
policy of the Republic to put off things intermin- 
ably, the English minister asked for an immediate 
answer to this request. It indicates the dispatch 
with which things were usually done in the Republic 
when we hear that "the favor of an answer within 
one month" was considered extraordinary speed. 

The complicated machinery of the Estates Gen- 
eral was set to work in the well-known way. After 
a month the request of the English government 
reached the provinces for their special considera- 
tion. After two months, in December of 1775, four 
of the country provinces, Gelderland, Friesland, 
Groningen, and Overysel, sent in their answer. As 
they were not directly interested in the smuggling 
trade in America, they advised granting England's 
wishes. Though the majority of the Estates was in 
favor of this decision, in some provinces there was 
great opposition from a minority which, moved by 
ideal and not by material considerations, strongly 
opposed a policy that might be detrimental to the 
best interests of the rebellious Americans. 

In Overysel, the opposition was of such nature 
that it drew the attention of the entire country. Its 
spokesman was the Baron Joan Derek van der 
Capellen van de Poll, a member of the nobility of 
Overysel, and as such possessed of a seat in the 
Estates whose part in this history is a considerable 
one. For the moment it will suffice to say that the 
Baron van der Capellen grew quite eloquent upon 



186 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the subject, and delivered himself of a speech which 
the interested reader may find in extenso in Wag- 
enaar (Vervolg i, pp. 55-59). The essential argu- 
ments in this speech were as follows: To grant the 
wish of the British government and allow the Eng- 
lish the loan of the Scottish brigade would mean a 
breach of neutrality at the expense of the Ameri- 
cans, and would mean that the Republic takes sides 
in a quarrel in which it should remain neutral. The 
Republic of the United Netherlands, which once 
upon a time had herself borne the proud name of 
"Rebel," would be drawn into a war against the 
courageous and virtuous defenders of such rights as 
they had received not from the British government 
but from Almighty God Himself. If the King of 
England wished mercenaries, it would be in better 
taste for him to hire Janizaries than to ask the 
troops of a free Commonwealth. If one could be- 
lieve the newspapers, even the savages refused to be 
mixed up in the quarrel. Certainly it was the plain 
duty of the Republic to refuse the demands of Eng- 
land for once and for all. 

The fact that van der Capellen used his impas- 
sioned speech for an attack upon local conditions in 
the province, and that he left the lofty heights of 
Almighty God and the Rights of Man to come down 
to*a plain denunciation of state and national poli- 
tics, did not strengthen his argument. He was out- 
voted and Overysel went on record as favoring the 
English demand. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 187 

In the other provinces, however, hostility to the 
plan was general, though it was based not upon 
sentiment but upon plain material considerations. 
In Holland the opposition came from all sides. The 
opinion of the Stadholder was not asked, but his 
immediate adviser, the Duke of Brunswick, was 
against the plan. He feared that England would 
forget to replace the Scottish brigade after it had 
once left the Dutch shore, and in this way the mis- 
erable army of the Republic would be weakened 
still further. 

The town of Amsterdam, though its motives dif- 
fered somewhat from his, strongly supported the 
Duke. Amsterdam wanted to wait awhile before 
answering. It reasoned as follows: England is ex- 
periencing great difficulties with her colonies. Soon 
she may need soldiers even worse than she needs 
them now. We do not want this Scottish brigade, 
anyway, as it costs us so much per year and we 
have no need of soldiers. Let us wait, therefore, 
until England wants them very badly, and then let 
us sell the whole outfit at a good profit. Fortun- 
ately the other cities showed more decency than 
Amsterdam, and the Republic was at least spared 
this shameful transaction. 

But even without these "practical" considera- 
tions, the Estates of Holland were strongly opposed 
to the whole plan. The influence of France had 
grown to such proportions that even in matters 
closely concerning the Republic's internal pohcies 



188 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the French minister in the Hague could exercise 
great influence, and he now advised his friends to 
make a definite stand against this British demand. 

On the other hand, however, the Estates feared 
to offend England too openly so long as the Re- 
public was so completely at her mercy upon the 
seas. Therefore, after deliberating as long as could 
decently be done, they informed the British gov- 
ernment that the sentiment of the seven provinces 
favored the granting of His Majesty's request and 
the Republic would be delighted to send her British 
ally the Scottish brigade. The Republic imposed 
only one condition: that the brigade should not be 
used for military purposes outside of Europe. Now, 
as everybody knew that England wanted the troops 
exclusively for use outside of Europe, the answer 
of the Republic contained not only a refusal, but a 
refusal with a gratuitous insult attached to it. 

In the mean while four months had gone by since 
the original request had been made and England 
decided not to press her demands. The King of 
England oflficially thanked the Stadholder of Hol- 
land for the trouble taken in this matter and stated 
that His Majesty no longer needed the troops. In 
case His Majesty should renew his request, he 
would be careful to remember the conditions which 
had been imposed. 

Nothing more was said or done at that time. 
The Scottish brigade remained in the Republic 
until 1795, and the King of England was obliged to 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 189 

hire his *' Janizaries" elsewhere. But England did 
not forget the refusal, which she could only con- 
sider an insult. It was the third time that the Re- 
public had neglected the duties imposed upon her 
by the different treaties which still bound her to 
Great Britain. It was the last time that she had 
a chance to renew the cordial relations between 
herself and England. From now on England only 
waited for the chance to retaliate. 

Those who profited most by the whole transac- 
tion were the members of the rising young demo- 
cratic party, the men who were suflficiently imbibed 
with the new notions of the Rights of Man and the 
Sanctity of Human Liberty to look upon the strug- 
gle in the American colonies with an enthusiastic 
approval which their more practical fellow citi- 
zens could hardly understand. Of these, spread all 
through the Republic, most of them unconscious of 
the fact that they were heralds of a new doctrine 
and a new era, none had covered himself with 
greater glory than the Baron van der Capellen, the 
upholder of Human Rights in the Estates of Over- 
ysel. Joan Derek van der Capellen, usually called 
Capellen van de Poll, to distinguish him from his 
cousin, Capellen van de Marsch, was a man of 
weight in his province. He was born in Tiel, Novem- 
ber 2, 1741, a member of an old Overysel family. 
As we have seen before, the nobility in Overysel 
and Gelderland enjoyed a great deal more im- 
portance than those in any of the other provinces. 



190 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

with the exception, perhaps, of a few famihes in 
Friesland. 

During the eighty years' war against Spain, mem- 
bers of this nobihty had faithfully served the Re- 
public as generals or diplomats. When the war was 
over, and the military career offered no longer any 
advantages or honor, these families, rather than 
compete with the rich Holland merchants for su- 
premacy in political matters, had preferred to re- 
tire to their estates, where they led the quiet life 
of country gentlemen. They either married among 
themselves or took wives from among the French 
or the German nobility. Many of them possessed 
some honorary position at the court of the Stad- 
holder, which they exercised whenever the latter 
left the Hague and came to reside for a few weeks 
in their particular province. As members of the 
nobility they also had a seat in the meetings of the 
quarter in which they resided and in the general 
meeting of the different quarters which made up 
their provincial estates. 

They cared a good deal for education, and either 
sent their sons to a Dutch university or let them 
study abroad. The University of Utrecht, as be- 
ing situated outside of the unpopular Province of 
Holland, attracted most of their young men. Also 
Utrecht had the advantage of being less cosmo- 
politan and a little stiffer and more dignified than 
Leyden, which suffered under a reputation for lib- 
eralism. In the eyes of the good ultra-conservative 



'THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 191 

and ultra-orthodox, Leyden was a direct anteroom 
to a far dryer and hotter region. 

At the time that Capellen and his cousin went to 
Utrecht, however, this particular university had 
entered upon a short period in its career during 
which a fairly healthy atmosphere prevailed. Usu- 
ally its young men were driven through an ex- 
tremely dull, extremely pedantic, and totally use- 
less course of Roman law, and were then considered 
to have received a liberal education. For a few 
years a course of lectures on the Jus Civile of the 
Republic had been given by a certain Professor 
Trotz. Trotz had started his career in the Uni- 
versity of Franeker, a small university built by the 
local pride of the Frisians which, in a modest way, 
had contributed a remarkably large number of 
excellent scholars. 

Trotz had left the field of purely theoretical dis- 
cussions and had restricted his lectures more to 
the practical aspects of the law which he taught. 
In connection with his lectures, old collections of 
Dutch law were being published. There was a good 
deal of investigating into old judicial practices and 
into the common law of the Middle Ages. These 
studies taught in the first place the great differ- 
ence between the law of the eighteenth century and 
that of the fifteenth, but they also showed how, in 
a great many ways, the position of the lower and 
middle classes was worse than it had been three 
hundred years before. At the end of the Middle 



192 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Ages, the artisans and the members of the guilds 
in general had possessed an influence in the manage- 
ment of their town government which they had long 
since lost to the Regents, that is, to the hereditary- 
oligarchy. 

Mere theoretical studies about such matters in- 
variably lead to their application to the practical 
questions of every-day life. Van der Capellen was 
in no way a genius. Still, judging by his letters, he 
was possessed of a certain amount of imagination 
and idealism, the latter a very rare commodity 
among his material and prosperous countrymen. 
It is not strange that a man of his turn of mind 
should soon find a comparison between the condi- 
tions under which his forefathers had lived and the 
conditions which were at that moment actually ex- 
isting in the thirteen colonies of America. 

Gradually, by reading all that was being pub- 
lished upon the subject and by a correspondence 
with such American statesmen as had sufl&cient lei- 
sure to answer his lengthy epistles, van der Capellen 
came to believe himself called upon by Providence 
to be, within his own little sphere, the defender 
and upholder of the good cause that was being 
fought out across the ocean. His first orations 
upon the subject, delivered in the Estates of Over- 
ysel, are to our modern ears very stilted and very 
bombastic. But we should not forget that he spoke 
in a time which loved that sort of thing and in a 
country which was not accustomed to parliament- 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 193 

ary discussions. Except in the Church, there was 
no place in the Repubhc where oratorical gifts could 
be developed. The meetings of the estates were to- 
tally unlike the sessions of our modern parliament. 
Nothing could be accomplished there by eloquent 
speech. If one wanted a measure adopted, the only 
possible course was to go and see everybody con- 
nected with it in his own hotel and talk the mat- 
ter over with him — very much in the way in which 
the modern lobbyist does his work. The dearth of 
good speakers made it easy for van der Capellen, 
with his humble gifts, to create quite a sensation 
by his little orations in the Estates of Overysel. 

There were many men in the Republic who 
thought the way he did. They were not organized, 
however, into a party. They had hardly known 
of one another's existence. Van der Capellen, by 
the attention he drew from his little speech, made 
himself suddenly their unofficial leader. This role 
he continued to play until the end of his days. 
With all his failings, we must at least do him the 
justice to recognize his perfect sincerity. He died 
comparatively young and before civil war had 
broken out in his country. In this way only did 
he escape actual violence. The only revenge which 
the partisans of the Prince could take on him was 
to blow up his grave. Several members of his 
family, however, who shared his opinions, suffered 
both physically and financially for their doctrines. 
Van der Capellen himself was continually exposed 



194 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

to all sorts of annoyances from all sorts of people, 
who thought him a traitor to the interests of his 
own class and a most dangerous demagogue. 

We should not forget that this affection for hu- 
man rights and for the people was an absolutely- 
new notion in the Republic. A few highly superior 
people took an aesthetic interest in it, but it did not 
appeal in the least to the minds of the majority 
of either the rich or the poor. Among the Regents 
these new doctrines were considered a terrible 
heresy, touching the soundness of the very basis of 
the Commonwealth. 

"The People" were all very well in their way. 
They were a highly necessary commodity to be 
treated with care and a certain amount of consider- 
ation. They were not to be treated harshly, unless 
harshness was absolutely necessary, and they should 
be cared for with hospitals and almshouses and 
orphan asylums. It was not necessary, however, to 
go into the street and fraternize with them in order 
to show how much one appreciated them. If a lot 
of butchers and grocers and farmers preferred to 
make a revolution somewhere in America, it was 
very pleasant, indeed, to sell them such commod- 
ities as they needed and could pay for, but this did 
not mean that they should be directly encouraged 
in their rebellion. If they should be successful, 
what would prevent the butchers and grocers and 
bakers of Amsterdam from clamoring for equal 
rights and demanding representation and proclaim- 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 195 

ing themselves the equals of their legitimate rulers, 
the Regents? 

When we consider for a moment among what sort 
of prejudices and aristocratic notions Baron van 
der Capellen had grown up, we can understand that, 
after all, a large amount of moral courage was nec- 
essary for him to act contrary to all the traditions 
and instincts of his own class and race. On the 
other hand, however, we must regretfully decline 
to paint van der Capellen as the glorious hero which 
some of his ardent supporters believed him to be. 
That he was actually able to play a role in our his- 
tory was largely due to the fact that he lived in a 
time when there was an absolute dearth of first-class 
men. His wealth and his social position made it 
easy for him to occupy a conspicuous position, and 
as nobody else could be found to champion the new 
doctrines, he naturally and almost involuntarily 
fell into a role for which he was not a big enough 
man. 

Since, by the stand he had taken on the question 
of the Scottish troops, he had become a national 
figure, van der Capellen felt it his duty to enlighten 
his fellow countrymen about the real issues in the 
quarrel between Great Britain and her rebellious 
colonists. He therefore presented the public with a 
translation of the little book by Dominie Richard 
Price, This booklet, "Observations on the Nature 
of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government and 
the Justice and Policy of the War with America,'* 



196 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

by Richard Price, D.D., F.R.S., now forgotten, was 
famous enough in its own day to go through a 
large number of editions. It was better known on 
the Continent than in England. It was not only 
intended to prove the injustice of England's be- 
havior towards her colonies, but also by means of 
an appendix full of statistics it tried to demonstrate 
that the war must inevitably end in failure for Eng- 
land. The British public, however, was too certain 
of ultimate victory to take an interest in these pes- 
simistic prophecies and refused to read the reverend 
gentleman's exhortations. 

Van der Capellen translated the pamphlet with 
great care and had it printed in Leyden. In a 
lengthy introduction, he tells the public a few things 
about himself. He apologizes for possible mistakes 
in the translation on the ground of not being an 
"accomplished literary man." He then confides to 
his readers that this is only his second attempt at 
similar work. A year before he had anonymously 
published a translation of a pamphlet by Andrew 
Fletcher, in order that his fellow countrymen might 
be made familiar with the advantages of a well- 
regulated civic militia. The translation of Dr. 
Price's work was undertaken to show the people of 
the Netherlands the unsound condition of the Eng- 
lish public finances and the impending danger of an 
official bankruptcy in that country. ^^ 

In the light of history it is rather curious to read 
the works of several of those amateur economists of 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 197 

the end of the eighteenth century, who undertake 
to prove the impending financial ruin of England 
and also predict a splendid future for France. As a 
matter of fact, France had been for years on the 
road to bankruptcy, while England without any 
apparent effort managed to increase her national 
debt and remain as sound as ever. 

Van der Capellen's translation was divided into 
three parts. The first one was again divided into 
three sections, which bore the names: "Of the Na- 
ture of Liberty in General," '* Of Civil Liberty and 
the Principles of Government," and "Of the Au- 
thority of One Country over Another." The sec- 
ond part was an investigation of the justice of the 
war with America, and examined England's policy 
in connection with it. The third part was filled 
with statistics, and, the author was convinced, fur- 
nished proofs that Great Britain was on the certain 
road towards financial ruin. 

It was this third part which was read with the 
greatest interest by most people. Those who 
wanted to know about the new doctrines could use 
the first two parts as a sort of Social Primer. But 
the third part, with its conclusive statistics, was 
accepted as gospel truth by people who wished no- 
thing more than to see the Republic's commercial 
rival in the hands of a receiver. 

Meanwhile things were going on very much as 
before. The edicts of the Estates General against the 
export of materials of war had not had the slightest 



198 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

effect. On the contrary, Mr. Heyliger, the new gov- 
ernor of St. Eustatius, the centre of the smuggUng 
trade in the West Indies, was himself greatly in- 
terested in the business and encouraged it with all 
his might. Finally, England lodged such a severe 
complaint about him in the Hague that the West 
India Company was obliged to call her governor 
back. Heyliger was ordered to return to the coun- 
try at once and a certain de Graeff was appointed 
as his successor. De Graeff was worse than his 
predecessor. He was the type of the shortsighted, 
eighteenth-century merchant who looked only for 
his immediate profit, who cared nothing for any 
further consequences as long as he got his dividends. 
While he omitted to curb the activity of the Dutch 
smugglers who made St. Eustatius their headquar- 
ters, at the same time he omitted to provide for any 
means of defense of the island. Neither in 1775 nor 
in 1776 did it come to an open break between Eng- 
land and the Republic. It was a time of continual 
misunderstandings between the two nations and 
mutual annoyances, but England was still too busy 
to enter upon a new war and the Republic was left 
in peace. 

Travel was slow in those days — the fame of van 
der Capellen's great oration had crossed the ocean 
and the orator received the official thanks of the 
Congress of the United States for his laudable exer- 
tions in behalf of civic liberty in general and Amer- 
ican liberty in particular. After which, van der 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 199 

Capellen, who was a vain man if anything, returned 
with renewed ardor to the task of preaching his doc- 
trines and got out a new edition of the translation 
of the Rev. Dr. Price's work. Soon, however, he had 
to suffer from competition. Other pohtical writers 
began to use the printing-press to inform the ex- 
pectant pubHc of what, in their opinion, ought to 
be done about these rebelHous colonists. 

As in France, it was in the highest classes that 
interest was first shown in all the burning questions 
of the day. The problem of the relation between 
subject and ruler, the inherent right of mankind to 
certain things or the absence of such an inherent 
right, were discussed by the leaders of the com- 
munity many years before the masses took any in- 
terest in the questions. The man with all the privi- 
leges and honors of the world thrust upon him 
worried about human rights long before the down- 
trodden citizen bothered himself about the yoke 
which he had to carry. From among the highest 
classes the interest in these questions gradually 
trickled down to lower ones, until it finally reached 
the people and brought about what we now know 
as the Revolutionary Period. If the process was 
somewhat different in America, and if the discus- 
sion there started at the bottom, it was not because 
of any inherent superiority of her plain people, but 
merely because at that blessed period of her eco- 
nomic history all the people of the thirteen colonies 
lived on the same floor, and were saved the annoy- 



200 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

ance of having rich neighbors living above them 
or paupers inhabiting the cellar. 

During the years following the debate on the 
Scottish troops a series of pamphlets was published 
in the Republic, discussing American affairs both 
practically! and theoretically. During 1777, and 
continuing during 1778, a series of "Open Letters 
about the American Troubles" was written by a 
member of the House of Orange, Louis Theodore, 
Count of Nassau La Leek. He was a descendant 
of one of the many remarkable illegitimate sons of 
Prince Maurice. The Count of Nassau lived quietly 
in the little town of Culemborg in Gelderland. His 
letters, which in the days before the invention of the 
editorial took the place of well-written leading art- 
icles, discussed American affairs with great impar- 
tiality and subjected all the aspects of the question 
to a close inspection.^" 

These letters show us that there was one side of 
the question which greatly worried those who took 
an interest in the struggles of the American colon- 
ists. The weakness of the East India Company was 
becoming more and more evident, and a good many 
people felt uneasy about the outcome of a possible 
rebellion in the Indies. *' What will happen," people 
asked, '* when the Dutch colonists in India, Amer- 
ica, or Africa shall hear of the success of the Amer- 
ican yeoman.? Will not they wish to imitate the 
American example and rid themselves of the Dutch 
yoke? Is n't it the duty of all Christian nations to 




JOAN DERCK VAN DER CAPELLEN VAN DE POLL 
After an engraving by L. J. Cathelin 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 201 

assist England in her present difl&culties in order 
to prevent all future outbreaks of a similar nature 
in other colonies?" 

The fact that the Count of Nassau thought it 
necessary in his fifth letter to enter upon a discus- 
sion of these questions shows us how common the 
anxiety must have been. According to him, how- 
ever, there was no such danger in the Dutch col- 
onies. Yes ! In the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, 
governed as they were by a civil and ecclesiastic 
inquisition, a similar outbreak might occur. But he 
was convinced that the Dutch colonists would never 
so far forget the ancestors who gave their lives that 
their descendants might be free as to turn their 
hand against their own fatherland. The author, 
however, seems not to have been an absolute be- 
liever in the right of self-government for colonies. 
On the contrary, he rather fears that the American 
Revolution was provoked by the large amount of 
liberty which England had allowed her colonists, — 
a liberty far surpassing that of the inhabitants of 
other colonies, — which allowed the Americans to 
develop their own local political commonwealth 
until the present clash had resulted. 

Those letters by Nassau La Leek, published in 
many editions during several years, are among the 
most judicious publications of the day upon any 
subject. They are almost the only articles about 
the American troubles which do not lose them- 
selves in rabid accusations of England, or which 



202 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

try to base their assertions upon documentary 
fact. 

Unfortunately there were not many authentic 
documents at the disposal of the public. There 
were no blue-books or statistics of any sort. There 
were hardly a score of Americans in Europe to give 
verbal information. The chief source of informa- 
tion for the Count was Thomas Paine's " Common 
Sense," a book which, notwithstanding its great 
success, was hardly a reliable guide. The popular- 
ity of this book in America was soon equaled by 
that it enjoyed in Europe. As early as 1776 it had 
been printed in French in Amsterdam. Henceforth 
it served all pamphleteers — "those poor devils 
whose pangs of hunger drive them to their desk," 
as van der Capellen calls them — as a handbook for 
their studies of affairs in the thirteen colonies. This 
had the curious result that a good many writers 
worried about the ability of the colonists to manage 
their own political affairs. For Mr. Paine, with 
legitimate pride in his native state of Pennsylvania 
and its population of "Pennsylvania Dutch," had 
tried to prove that this rebellion was not a matter 
of Anglo-Saxon interest alone, but that Germany, 
so largely represented in the noble country of his 
birth, and Europe in general, were immediately 
concerned in the outcome of the struggle. "If," so 
the Dutch pamphleteer reasoned, "this is true, — 
and we have no reason to believe to the contrary, — 
then we fail to see how, with so many Germans, 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 203 

the American commonwealth can ever maintain its 
independence." Nobody at that period of history 
could believe that the German race would ever un- 
derstand or be able to live under the Anglo-Saxon 
form of government, with its characteristic traits of 
self-help and self-reliance. 

All in all, during the years 1776 and 1777 about 
thirty-four different pamphlets were printed dis- 
cussing the American question directly or indirectly. 
When we compare this number with the countless 
pamphlets printed during the next years, it seems 
rather small, and indicates no very great interest 
in the question which so excited van der Capellen 
and his friends. But we must not forget that we are 
only at the beginning of this strange period in our 
history when there were almost as many new pam- 
phlets as there were days in the year. During the 
years that were to follow everybody who had some- 
thing to say, or who thought that he had something 
to say, rushed into the nearest printing-shop and 
favored the world with an expression of his profound 
reflections. Often the public refused to be so favored 
and refused to buy the writer's literary product. 
In that case the latter eventually returned to the 
paper-mill and was resolved into its original pulp. 

The only person who fared well by this industry 
was the printer, who asked for payment in advance. 
A laudable desire for economy on the latter's part 
and the extremely cheap paper which he used in 
consequence, have saved us from the contemplation 



204 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of our great-grandfathers' literary labors. The eter- 
nal demand of grocers and butchers for packing- 
paper has done away with countless other bales of 
printed paper, but enough remains to give us a fair 
idea of the amount of ink that was wasted between 
the years 1778 and ISOO.^^ 

It is true that the pamphleteering industry had 
never been wholly unknown in the Republic. Upon 
certain occasions, such as discussion about the man- 
agement of the East India Company, the bulb 
craze, or the appointment of a stadholder, there 
usually had been a fair crop of booklets which set 
forth the pros and cons of the matter under discus- 
sion. During the period which we are about to de- 
scribe, however, the "Ode to a Dead Frog" is a seri- 
ous piece of literature compared to most of what 
was being held for sale in the book-shops of that 
day. Everybody was trying to get into print. The 
clergyman had no sooner delivered himself of a 
sermon on the affairs of the day, but he must needs 
run to the nearest bookseller and give him the job 
of printing his exhortation. Those poets who made 
a scant livelihood by bursting into song, for two- 
pence a line, whenever a family was celebrating 
birth, death, or marriage, now set to work to com- 
pose rhymed comedies in which the perfidious 
Briton was held up to ridicule. Persons with a sen- 
timental turn of mind wept bitter tears on the 
prospective graves of the Hessian soldier, sold into 
slavery by a heartless master. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 205 

Amateur politicians sprang forth with the most 
intricate systems of international treaties by which 
the Republic should surround herself as a safe- 
guard from possible British attacks. The majority 
of these advised an alliance with France; but others 
preferred to seek salvation elsewhere — even with 
poor old Spain, long since forgotten as a first-class 
nation. 

Others, with an eye for the practical side of 
things, advised the immediate conclusion of a com- 
mercial treaty with the new American Republic. 
The sooner this was done, so they argued, the more 
advantages the Republic might hope to receive. 

There was one very popular way in which to dis- 
cuss questions from all sides. First, there appeared 
a "Letter from a Gentleman in London to his 
Friend in Amsterdam." This was followed by *' An 
Answer from a Gentleman in Amsterdam to his 
Friend in London." The next pamphlet had as 
title, *'An Answer from a Gentleman in London to 
an Answer by his Friend from Amsterdam." There 
also were variations upon this theme. An "Un- 
prejudiced Observer " or an " Open-minded Patriot " 
could at any moment take part in this correspond- 
ence and publish his "Frank Observations on the 
Answer of a Gentleman from London to the An- 
swer of his Friend in Amsterdam." And so on ad 
infinitum. _ 

Whenever the supply of homemade articles 
showed signs of diminishing, the foreign market was 



206 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

called upon to provide new material. Some poor 
hack would be hired to translate a few French or 
English pamphlets, and the fruits of his pen would 
be sent' into the world under a new and imposing 
name. The public seems to have bought these 
pamphlets — which cost from three to fivepence 
a piece — very much in the same way that we now- 
adays buy newspaper extras. Even when we know 
that they cannot possibly contain any actual news, 
we buy them merely out of a sort of nervous desire 
to "get the latest." 

Needless to say, the large majority of the pam- 
phlets were strangely anti-British. The very few 
which appeared defending the good rights of the 
English government were not read, and were de- 
rided as the shameful products of corrupt writers 
who for mere lucre put theirpen at the disposal of 
heartless tyrants. (For heartless tyrant read King 
George, or his friend, the Stadholder.) With the 
constant intercourse between the two countries and 
the excellent mail service between Amsterdam and 
London, it is no matter of great surprise that the 
English were fairly well informed of the often scan- 
dalous libels which were to be found plentifully on 
the tables of every alehouse in the Republic. Nor 
can we suspect the British government of being 
pleased with these loud denunciations which came 
from a nation supposed to be its friend, which en- 
joyed the privileges of the most favored nation. 

And, to make things worse, England had been 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 207 

most unhappy in the choice of her diplomatic repre- 
sentative in the Hague. Sir Joseph Yorke belonged 
to that class of arrogant British diplomats who at 
all times and in all countries have by their over- 
bearing behavior done so much to prevent a good 
understanding between their home country and the 
land to which they were accredited. He was very 
honest, and belonged to that order of honest people 
who always speak the truth when it does most harm 
and is least called for. He represented a country 
which was then at the height of its glory, the fore- 
most nation of Europe. But he represented it in 
a country which was then rapidly going towards the 
lowest depth it would ever reach. Sir Joseph un- 
fortunately had the bad tact to let the Hollanders 
continually feel their changed condition, and was 
very apt to treat the Estates General as if they ex- 
isted only by sufferance of His British Majesty. 

The tradition of many centuries had established 
a privileged position for the British minister in the 
Hague. He was often called upon to be the unoflS- 
cial adviser of the stadholders, who were so closely 
related to the British throne. From the very begin- 
ning, however, Sir Joseph could not get along with 
the friends of the young Stadholder. The Stadholder 
himself, he soon considered, a negligible quantity, 
a man who had to be protected occasionally against 
his enemies who were also the enemies of England. 

The Stadholder on his side was afraid of the 
grouchy old Briton, who would address him without 



208 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

any ceremony, who would ask such pertinent ques- 
tions that it was next to impossible to tell him a lie 
or to spar for time in which to get up an appropri- 
ate answer. Neither did William like to be reminded 
at all times of his complete dependence upon Eng- 
land for a secure hold upon his own high office. 
The Princess, who had not yet played any political 
role, being too much occupied with her nursery, dis- 
liked the Englishman from the beginning and always 
kept out of his way. 

With the Regents Sir Joseph got along even 
worse. Their High-and-Mightinesses, each one a 
little potentate in his own small circle, had to be 
handled with great care. A mistake in the correct 
title by which they expected to be addressed might 
cause no end of annoyance. Sir Joseph, who went 
right ahead, regardless of other people's feelings, 
was continually stepping on everybody's sensitive 
toes. Instead of flattering the Regents and cajoling 
them into complying with his wishes, he used to 
tell them abruptly what he wanted and then would 
expect them to do as he desired. Whenever his 
requests were not immediately granted, he used to 
rumble with the British thunder and threaten the 
Republic with the terrible things that might happen 
if the just demands of His British Majesty's govern- 
ment should be disregarded. 

The Regents retaliated by most exasperating 
slowness in all their dealings with Sir Joseph. They 
never said "No." They never gave him a chance 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 209 

to call forth the storm which was to destroy them. 
But neither did they ever say " Yes." They let His 
Excellency know that "the matter was under dis- 
cussion," and then they gave him a few months in 
which to cool off his anger — a proceeding which 
usually had an effect opposite to that intended. In 
this way the misunderstanding between the two 
countries was continually increased. On the side of 
the Republic there was a good deal of insolence and 
a prejudiced desire to see everything British in as 
bad a light as possible. On the side of England there 
was a good deal of just cause for annoyance, but also 
an insolent disregard of the feelings of its neighbor. 
The only person who benefited by all this quar- 
reling was the French minister. D 'Affray had been 
called back and had been succeeded by a young 
diplomat, the Duke de Vauguyon. Paul Frangois 
de Guelen, Duke de Vauguyon, son of the former 
governor of Louis XIV, was only thirty years old 
when he was sent to the Hague. What he lacked in 
experience he made u|>~forL by a charming personal- 
ity and by a large personal fortune which he used 
most liberally for his diplomatic purposes. He never 
bothered about the Stadholder. He did not even 
take the trouble to oppose him, but left him in 
peace and used all his influence towards establishing 
a firm friendship with the Regents. To the Regents 
his palace and his purse were open at all times, and 
around his excellent dinners he used to collect as 
many of them as were willing to come. 



210 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Van der Capellen and his democratic friends he 
carefully avoided. It is true that a good many 
Frenchmen at that moment shared the Republic's 
popular enthusiasm for the Americans and for 
everything American, up to the wearing of hats and 
coats a V Americain. But such enthusiasm was 
considered a pastime for fashionable people. For 
those who were not fashionable the system of "by 
the grace of God" was considered good enough and 
was rigorously maintained. Even when in 1778 
France entered into a treaty with the Americans, 
this was done not so much out of an abstract love 
for those principles which the Americans were sup- 
posed to defend as in the hope of earning sweet 
revenge for the loss of Canada. 

His Excellency the French ambassador had not 
been sent to the Republic for sentimental reasons. 
His duty was to get the Republic away from Eng- 
land and to force her into an alliance with France. 
For France needed money, and with the impending 
expedition to America would soon need more, and 
the Republic possessed those indispensable funds. 
De Vauguyon, therefore, took great pains to get into 
the right relationship with the banking interests of 
the country. In Amsterdam he had a host of friends. 
Gradually he established for himself the position of 
unofficial head of all those among the Regents who 
opposed the Stadholder. Outwardly, however, he 
maintained correct relations with William. For the 
Prince of Orange was an excellent weapon with 



THE^ AMERICAN REVOLUTION 211 

which to menace the Regents. Should they show 
themselves unmanageable, de Vauguyon could al- 
ways threaten to throw France's influence in favor 
of their enemy, the Stadholder. 

In one word, the French minister did a very 
clever piece of balancing between the different 
parties. Wherever Sir Joseph by his boorishness 
had made new enemies, de Vauguyon was sure to ap- 
pear and by the charm of his manner turn the in- 
sulted parties into his firm and everlasting friends. 
Whenever the Dutch merchants were loud in their 
complaints about the British and denounced their 
brusque methods in dealing with the smuggling 
trade, they were informed of the benefits that would 
result if only they were willing to leave an ally who 
no longer behaved as such and throw their fate in 
with that of magnanimous France. 

Circumstances greatly favored the Frenchman. 
In the West Indies the relations between Dutch and 
English grew steadily from bad to worse. Not only 
had England increased her fleet in the Caribbean 
Sea, but she had also hinted to her merchants at 
home and abroad that a little privateering at the 
expense of the Dutch would not be punished with 
the gallows, and might even be looked upon with 
favor by the authorities at home. And the patriotic 
British ship-owners from Bristol and Plymouth, 
and all the many seaports along the English coast, 
had caught the hint and had started chasing Dutch 
ships wherever they could find them. The Carib- 



212 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

bean Sea was soon full of respectable buccaneers, 
who stopped and plundered whatever ships fell into 
their hands in the interest of the mother country. 
Let us, at least, pay tribute to their impartiality. 
They took quite as many French, Spanish, and 
Danish as they did Dutch ships. Whenever they 
could not find anything on the sea, they were apt to 
extend their operations to the South American con- 
tinent. England still refused to recognize the United 
States as an independent nation, and wherever 
American ships were found in Dutch harbors the 
English quietly declared them their prizes. 

Upon one occasion an English privateer met an 
American merchantman going from Surinam to 
Virginia. ^^ The American ship fled and returned 
to the coast, where it was captured under the very 
nose of a Dutch fortress and a Dutch man-of-war. 
Loud was the wail which the Dutch press made 
about this "attack upon Dutch sovereignty" and 
the insult offered to the captain of the Dutch ship, 
who, when he tried to demand an explanation of 
the English captain, was told to "get out or take 
care that he did not get shot, too." 

The matter was immediately carried to the atten- 
tion of Sir Joseph. But His Excellency had waited 
for just such an occasion to say what was in his 
mind. The Estates General, so he told them, might 
as well know once and for all that the King of Eng- 
land, his august master, had decided that in the 
future he would exercise what was merely his good 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 213 

right, everywhere and under all conditions. The 
King, therefore, intended to attack the rebellious 
Americans wherever His Majesty's arms or fleet 
could find them, and would inflict due punishment 
upon all those who either supported said Americans 
or who gave them hospitality. Finally, His Majesty 
thought that it would be of much greater advantage 
to his country to have open and duly recognized 
enemies than to have so-called allies who provided 
His Majesty's rebellious subjects with all the con- 
traband of war they needed. 

Sir Joseph did not do things by halves. The hint 
which he gave was broad enough. The Republic 
in this period of her history was playing a miser- 
able role. She openly encouraged the enemies of her 
ally in order to make some money. She so neglected 
her fortifications that her harbors were at the mercy 
of any English catboat that ventured to sail across 
the ocean. When, in consequence of this dishonest 
policy, the Republic finally got into trouble, she 
knew no way to get redress but by allowing her 
hired scribes to vilify England and to call the Brit- 
ish minister a boor. 

Meanwhile, everybody in the Republic was ask- 
ing everybody else: "Why is not something being 
done?" "Why does not the Stadholder send out 
a fleet to protect our interests .f^" "Are we always 
going to be at the mercy of this British insolence?" 
Just that sort of questions were asked in Athens 
when Sparta destroyed its prosperity and in Rome 



214 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

when the Barbarians swooped down upon the out- 
lying provinces. 

"Why is not something being done?" As a mat- 
ter of fact, the Stadholder did try to do something. 
There were plans and discussions about sending a 
fleet of twenty ships to the Caribbean Sea to de- 
fend the Dutch colonies and protect the merchant- 
men against the English privateers. The first ques- 
tion was where to find twenty ships. The second, 
where to find the sailors with which to man the 
twenty ships. ^^ Not only was there a lack of funds 
with which to build ships, but the renewed activity 
in the smuggling business and the high wages paid 
to the sailors who engaged in it caused a scarcity of 
men for the fleet which no promise of a high enlist- 
ment premium could remedy. 

After many months of delay, however, eight ships 
were made more or less seaworthy and equipped for 
the trip across the Atlantic. In the last month of 
1777, this small fleet, under command of Count 
Louis van Bylandt, sailed to South America with 
strict orders to protect only the legitimate trade. 
Bylandt had no orders to suppress the "illegitimate 
trade." Therefore, while he defended the Dutch 
merchantmen against the English privateers, he did 
nothing to stop the export of contraband goods to 
the United States. From an English point of view, 
therefore, the Dutch fleet was only another insult 
to Great Britain and had no other purpose than 
to encourage Mr. George Washington to continue 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 215 

in his rebellious conduct. Chance only prevented 
an open outbreak at that time. From both sides 
everything was being done to create mutual ill- 
will. 

As we have seen before, one of the governors of 
St. Eustatius, the big department store of the Amer- 
ican Revolution, had been called back upon a num- 
ber of complaints by the English and had been re- 
placed by a certain de Graeff . This de Graeff , as we 
also have had a chance to remark, was a very com- 
mon individual and saw his only duty in making 
the greatest profit in the shortest time. As he was 
a man of great commercial industry and no integ- 
rity whatsoever, his activities were all the more 
detrimental to the reputation of the island of which 
he happened to be governor. 

One of his first acts caused no end of irritation in 
England. On the 16th of November, 1776, a ship 
flying the American flag entered the harbor of St. 
Eustatius. The governor, though he knew that the 
American colonies were not yet recognized as an 
independent nation, ordered his men to find a gun 
that could be fired and to salute the new flag. 
Since the American Revolution has been successful 
and everything has come out as well as the most 
ardent American patriot could hope, this act of 
de Graeff is lauded as the first honor which the 
nations of the world paid to the free and enlight- 
ened commonwealth of the West. At that moment, 
however, the act of de Graeff was a decided breach 



216 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of tact committed against a friendly nation, and it 
is no wonder that England resented it. 

When the matter was reported to the Hague, — 
via London, — Sir Joseph in his usual way made a 
great ado about it. Even when making the most 
reasonable complaint he had the unhappy faculty 
of irritating everybody to the point where they 
felt that they, and not he, were the persons who had 
suffered an injustice. In this case, however, the fact 
could not possibly be denied. The Estates General 
followed the only course open to them and ordered 
de Graeff to be recalled. The investigation of his 
conduct was dragged along in the customary way. 
From all sides pressure was being brought to bear 
upon the authorities not to let such a valuable 
man be lost. Soon de Graeff complained that his 
health, after so many years in the tropics, could not 
stand the strain of the Dutch climate. He was then 
allowed to return to his old home, and was rein- 
stated as governor of St. Eustatius. Neither Eng- 
land's remonstrance nor Sir Joseph's violence of 
language had done the slightest good. 

Everything remained as before. The Dutch 
smuggled, the English buccaneered. The Stad- 
holder grew pale in the face and stammered apolo- 
gies; Sir Joseph grew red in the face and bellowed 
revenge. Finally, events took their natural course 
and war broke out between the Republic and 
England. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 

On the 6th of February, 1778, France made a secret 
treaty with America. It took exactly one month for 
the secret to become known. In March, France and 
England were in open warfare. There was great 
joy in the Republic. France depended upon the 
Dutch merchant marine to furnish her with many 
of the necessities of war and there was a prospect of 
a few years of good business. Most of all, France 
would need wood for the building of her ships, and 
wood was one product of which the Dutch store- 
houses were full. During the last few years there had 
been so much talk about the building of a new fleet 
that the Dutch merchants, as a speculation, had 
bought large quantities of wood in Scandinavia and 
in the Black Forest. When it became clear that no 
new Dutch ships were to be built, these merchants 
found themselves overstocked. They now had the 
prospect of getting rid of their large supply at a 
very neat profit. 

On the sea England was much stronger than 
France. As we have said, the latter part of the 
eighteenth century was the age of the wooden 
Dreadnought. In the sixteenth century it was a 
comparatively easy matter to equip a fleet. A few 
guns on the deck of a lugger or a schooner and your 



218 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

man-of-war was ready. Many of the greatest battles 
in the naval warfare between Spain and Holland 
had been fought by the Hollanders with sloops 
provided with a few inferior cannon. In the days 
of de Witt, the regular navy, with ships of from 
five hundred to seven hundred tons, had replaced 
the old amateur fleet. From that time on, the size 
of naval vessels was constantly increased until the 
iron construction of the nineteenth century did 
away with all the old wooden glory. 

When in 1778 war broke out between England 
and France, England had no fewer than two hun- 
dred and ninety -five ships, one hundred and thirty- 
seven of which carried between fifty and one hun- 
dred guns each. At the beginning of the war, 
England employed some sixty thousand sailors, but 
this number was gradually increased until, in 1780, 
it reached the total of one hundred thousand men, 
a number never dreamed of before. 

France, on the other hand, had only two hun- 
dred and seventeen ships, of which sixty-eight were 
of the larger size. As in modern warfare, only the 
bigger vessels counted in actual battle. France, 
therefore, would have been outnumbered almost 
two to one. She would never have begun this war 
if there had not been a reasonable hope that Spain 
would soon join her. Spain, just then, was experi- 
encing one of those sporadic attempts at political 
and economic improvement which occurred fre- 
quently during the eighteenth century. Thus it 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 219 

happened that her fleet, though numbering only 
one hundred and thirty-four vessels, was of recent 
construction and that many were big ships of from 
sixty to one hundred and twelve guns each. 

The united Spanish and French fleets might have 
held their own against England, and France wisely 
refrained from beginning the war alone. With the 
exception of the fight at Ouessant on the 27th of 
July, France allowed England to be complete mis- 
tress of the sea, and restricted her activities to the 
building of new ships and the strengthening of her 
position on land. 

The alliance between France and America meant 
a great personal victory for the American delegates 
in Europe, and more especially for Benjamin Frank- 
lin. Now that their work in France was done, the 
delegates had their hands free and could extend 
their operations to other countries. In 1777, before 
the outbreak of the war between France and Eng- 
land, Franklin had made one attempt to establish 
closer relations with the Republic, but had been 
quite unsuccessful. While perfectly willing to sell 
things to the Americans for cash, the Dutch were 
not in the least desirous of venturing their good 
money in such a risky undertaking as an American 
loan. 

A year later, just before the secret alliance be- 
tween France and America became generally known, 
the three American envoys, Franklin, Silas Deane, 
and Arthur Lee, wrote to the Commission on For- 



220 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

eign Affairs that they had been informed that it 
might be to their advantage if one of them should 
visit the RepubHc, and that, therefore, either 
Frankhn or Deane would visit Holland as soon as 
the treaty between France and America should 
have become known and the winter be over.^^ 

Before either of them came to Holland, however, 
the French minister in the Hague visited Paris and 
conferred repeatedly with the American envoys. He 
advised them to make a definite attempt to estab- 
lish friendly relations with the Republic. He as- 
sured the Americans of his moral support and pro- 
mised his help wherever he could give it unoflScially. 

On the 10th of April, 1778, the three envoys sent 
a letter to van Bleiswyk, the Raadpensionaris of 
Holland. In this letter, dated from Paris, the Amer- 
icans informed the Raadpensionaris, as Secretary 
of Foreign Affairs for the Republic, that the 
United States of North America was now an inde- 
pendent state, had been recognized as such by 
France, and had concluded a friendly alliance and 
a commercial treaty with that country. Of this 
treaty they allowed themselves to inclose a copy for 
His Excellency's consideration. Would His Excel- 
lency, if he thought it advisable, communicate this 
document to the Estates General, for whom the 
United States felt such a great respect .^^ And would 
His Excellency accept the expression of their sin- 
cere desire to see pleasant relations established 
between their respective countries, in order that a 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 221 

commerce, beneficial to both, might soon be estab- 
lished between the two nations? 

As a matter of fact His Excellency the Raad- 
pensionaris, who was no hero, was greatly embar- 
rassed by this document. He went immediately to 
tell his trouble to the Stadholder. The Stadholder 
at once went to the Duke of Brunswick. Before 
they had come to their decision, Amsterdam, which 
had been informed of the details of this corre- 
spondence by its good friend, the French minister, 
advised that the matter should not be brought up 
for discussion in the Estates General, but that the 
different cities should be informed of the contents 
of the letter and should agree to keep it secret. So 
it was decided. A copy of the letter from Messrs. 
Franklin, Deane, and Lee was sent to the delega- 
tions of the different cities, to be submitted by them 
to the wise councils of their respective home towns. 
In this way one secret was communicated to several 
hundred people, and within a week the English 
newspapers printed all the details. 

Sir Joseph, who was often better informed about 
what was going on in the Hague than the Stad- 
holder himself, had known of the arrival of the 
American letter almost as soon as it had reached 
the Raadpensionaris. Without giving him time to 
consult van Bleiswyk or the Duke of Brunswick, 
the English minister hastened to interview the 
Prince. He asked His Highness point-blank what 
the truth of the matter was. The Prince, much em- 



FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

barrassed, stammered a denial, then told Sir Joseph 
how much he was personally attached to the King 
of England, and finally confessed that such a letter 
as the British minister had just mentioned did 
exist. 

Sir Joseph, according to his own testimony, flat- 
tered himself that during the interview he "omitted 
nothing that was proper to be said," and afterward 
stated that he had "left the Prince with a strong 
and friendly recommendation not to suffer himself 
to be entrapped again." With England in full pos- 
session of all the facts, the only thing the Estates 
General could possibly do was to ignore the Amer- 
ican communication. It was filed away in the 
archives. 

This proceeding, however, was little to the taste 
of Amsterdam. When Amsterdam is mentioned, 
the Burgomasters are in mind; not the two hundred 
thousand people residing within its walls, but the 
town council and the few families which made up 
its hereditary government and which ruled the city 
as if it were their own private possession. Amster- 
dam, then, which of all Dutch cities had the great- 
est interest in a commercial treaty with America, 
deeply regretted this outcome of the affair. Since 
it was no longer possible to consider the question 
openly in the Estates General, Amsterdam decided 
to take matters into her own hands and to con- 
tinue the negotiations with the American envoys at 
her own risk. She preferred not to communicate 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 223 

directly with the American envoys in Paris, but 
corresponded with them through a certain Dumas, 
who was the American man-of -all-work in the Re- 
public. This Dumas was a typical product of his 
time. By profession he was a tutor, a governor of 
the children of rich families. On the side he was an 
amateur diplomatist and looked after the Dutch 
interests of the American delegation in Paris. He 
kept this office all during the first negotiations be- 
tween the Republic and the United States. He then 
became the private secretary of Adams, the first 
American representative in Holland, and left him 
to enter the service of the French minister in the 
Hague. 

On the 23d of September, 1778, van Berckel, the 
radical Pensionaris of Amsterdam, wrote a letter to 
Dumas. Of course, so van Berckel said, it would be 
foolish for Amsterdam to conclude a treaty with 
America all alone and without informing the other 
cities and provinces. But on the other hand, Am- 
sterdam is the largest and most influential city in 
the Republic, and nothing can happen in the Repub- 
lic without Amsterdam's consent and cooperation. 
Therefore, it would be a good idea for Amsterdam 
to begin to pave the way for a future treaty. As 
soon as the war between England and America is 
finished, all the preliminary work will have been 
done and the treaty can be signed at once. 

The plan was as simple as it was beautiful. In a 
letter of the same day, meant directly for the Amer- 



224 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

ican envoys, van Berckel expressed the same ideas. 
The existing alliance between America and France 
could serve as an example, he thought, for a similar 
one between the Republic and America. Of course 
there must first be peace between America and 
England, but in expectation of this peace, why 
should not Amsterdam and the envoys of the Amer- 
ican Congress perform the preliminary work now.^* 
And would the Americans kindly keep the greatest 
secrecy about this matter, in order that nobody 
whose interest it was to prevent the plan might 
interfere and spoil it? 

This letter was most welcome in the American 
camp. An answer was sent without delay. The 
Americans were delighted. Then followed a few 
compliments. But why, asked the Americans, wait 
until peace shall have been declared .^^ Why wait 
until England shall have recognized the inde- 
pendence of the colonies .f^ Are not those colonies 
practically independent at this very moment? To 
wait might be dangerous for the Republic. The 
colonies might conclude a peace with England at 
any moment, and the Republic would then run the 
risk that England in this event might wish to re- 
serve for herself certain commercial privileges, to 
the disadvantage of other nations, and the Republic 
might just happen to be one of the other nations. 

From now on the correspondence moved swiftly. 
Dumas reported that he had seen van Berckel, that 
Amsterdam was quite as willing as ever to enter into 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 225 

negotiations with the Americans, but that at the 
moment Sir Joseph was once more making a ter- 
rible fuss about the Dutch smugglers and Amster- 
dam was obliged to move with great circumspec- 
tion. The Americans thereupon suggested that 
Amsterdam send a plenipotentiary to some foreign 
city where he could meet one of the American dele- 
gates with whom he could discuss the matter more 
fully. 

Amsterdam, however, did not care to run the risk 
of sending a member of the town government. She 
let some of the influential merchants who were 
interested in the American trade into the secret. 
One of those, Jean de Neufville, head of a house of 
American merchants, was unofficially authorized to 
discuss the possibilities of a commercial treaty with 
the American delegate. None of the three American 
envoys in Paris could leave at that moment, and 
as their representative they sent William Lee, who 
was looking after the American interests in Ger- 
many and Austria. 

In September, 1778, in Aix-les-Bains, a fashion- 
able watering-place, where a cosmopolitan crowd 
offered a splendid opportunity for a clandestine 
meeting, Lee and de Neufville drew up the rough 
draft of a commercial treaty between the American 
and the Dutch Republics. This rough draft con- 
tained thirty-four articles. It was to be kept a 
secret until England should have recognized the 
independence of the American States. ' It would 



226 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

then be submitted to the American Congress and 
to the Dutch Estates General for their approval. 

Having finished these negotiations] to their 
mutual content, the gentlemen left Aix-les-Bains 
without having been discovered. Lee went to 
Frankfurt, and thence to Paris, where he reported 
the success of his mission to the Commission on 
Foreign Affairs in America. De Neufville went back 
to Amsterdam, and delivered the concept-treaty 
to the Burgomasters, who subjected it to a careful 
examination and suggested some minor changes. 
Marvelously enough, the whole transaction actu- 
ally remained a secret. A copy of the treaty in 
its preliminary form reached America safely, and 
during the next two years nobody except the few 
initiated oflficials knew about its existence. Then, 
by the purest chance, it was discovered by England 
and led to war with the Republic. 

But brief mention should be made of the happen- 
ings of the intervening two years. The Dutch 
merchants now delivered their contraband wares 
not only to the Americans but also to France. As 
we have seen before, wood was their chief article of 
export. England, however, had declared wood to be 
contraband of war. It took every Dutch ship which 
transported such wood, sold the contents thereof in 
an English harbor, and then allowed the ship to go 
home with the proceeds of the auction. Such forced 
sales never produced anything, and the Dutch mer- 
chants whose ships were caught lost much money. 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 227 

Hence there arose a great debate, and the ques- 
tion was, "Is or is not wood contraband of war?" 
The Repubhc pointed to a treaty made between the 
two countries in 1674 in which wood was not men- 
tioned as contraband of war. England could not 
deny the existence of this treaty, but it claimed 
that circumstances had changed. By selling the 
wood to the French, so they reasoned, you are 
selling to our enemies that commodity of which at 
present they are most in need. 

It was, however, useless to start upon a discus- 
sion of the ethical points of law involved. That the 
Dutch merchants, who during their own war of 
independence had steadily sold powder and guns to 
the Spaniards, would suddenly become possessed 
of higher notions of business ethics, was not to be 
expected. They continued to trade with France 
as well as they could under the constant super- 
vision of the English fleet, and nothing was 
changed. 

It is interesting to read the letters and papers 
of the years immediately preceding the disastrous 
English war of 1780. It seemed that nobody in the 
Republic was as yet aware of the fact that his nation 
had become a sixth-rate power; that against the 
hundreds of ships of England, the Republic could 
not oppose a dozen of her own. The diplomatic 
information of that day was extremely poor. The 
government in the Hague was kept badly in- 
formed, and the notions which the majority of the 



228 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

people held about everything were usually not 
borne out by fact. 

The belief that England was responsible for their 
decline in prosperity made most Hollanders blind 
to the real facts. If only the alliance with England 
were given up, so they reasoned, and a new one 
were made with France, everything would come 
out all right, and yet at the very moment France 
was beginning to suffer from chronic starvation and 
was very near bankruptcy! It was this blindness 
which made it so easy for the French minister in the 
Hague to bully the Republic into submission. 

After a long series of protests from England, the 
Estates General, on the 19th of November, were 
forced to proclaim officially that "henceforth, no 
vessels loaded with wood, suitable for the building 
of ships, would be given convoy by the Republic's 
men-of-war." France immediately informed the 
Republic that she never would consent to this rul- 
ing, that she was obliged to consider this decision 
of the Estates General a breach of neutrality, and 
that in case the Republic was going to align herself 
at England's side by the promulgation of such a 
law, France would be obliged to deprive the Re- 
public of all the rights and privileges which her 
merchants so far had enjoyed. 

The French minister sent this communication on 
the 7th of December. Twelve days passed, and the 
Estates General had not yet sent an answer. On 
the 19th of December France repeated her demand 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 229 

and renewed her threats. Eleven days later, the 
Estates General informed the French minister that 
the question was under discussion. 

This, however, did not satisfy the government in 
Paris. An edict revoking all such laws as favored 
the Hollanders above other nations was signed by 
the King and sent to the Hague. The French min- 
ister had orders not to deliver it immediately. He 
was told to show it to the members of the Estates 
General and to his friends in Amsterdam. Soon all 
the Dutch merchants knew of the document the 
French minister carried around in his pocket. 
They were greatly scared. On the 28th of March, 
the Estates General of the Independent Republic 
of the United Seven Netherlands recalled their 
decision of the 19th of November. 

We do not intend to describe in detail the many 
humiliations of a similar nature which the Repub- 
lic suffered during the next year. They were all 
brought about in the same general way. On one 
day, driven by fear of England, the Republic would 
adopt a certain measure, and on the next, through 
dread of offending France and losing some commer- 
cial profit, she would recall her decision. She was 
completely at the mercy of England, which had the 
stronger navy, and of France, which provided the 
greater revenue. Both nations she tried to placate 
by halfway measures which had continually to be 
patched up to please one or the other of the two 
belligerent nations. By so doing she systematically 



230 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, 

weakened her own prestige and ended by being 
despised by both. Only after wasting many pre- 
cious years and finally being driven into a corner, 
from which she could no longer hope to extricate 
herself by delays or excuses, did she at last deter- 
mine to do something towards the defense of her 
independence. Nothing, however, was done hur- 
riedly. First of all, a commission was appointed to 
"investigate the condition of the fleet and to report 
thereon." In January of 1779, a committee of dele- 
gates from the five different admiralties met in the 
Hague to make a study of the problem and to pro- 
pose a plan of reform. 

After deliberations lasting three months, this 
committee brought out its report. It discovered 
that the Republic did not possess a single ship of 
the size then considered necessary for naval war- 
fare, of which England, France, and Spain each pos- 
sessed a large number. It advised that the Repub- 
lic begin at once to build twelve ships of seventy 
guns, thirty of sixty guns, and forty-two of from 
twenty to fifty guns. The next question which the 
commission discussed was, what to do with those 
ships when they were once built. The Republic no 
longer possessed any harbors which could contain 
a large fleet. Amsterdam had always been a difficult 
port to reach on account of the sandbanks in the 
Zuyderzee, which made it necessary for a man-of- 
war to unload all her cannon and most of her rig- 
ging before she could be towed over the principal 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 231 

banks. Helder, which was later made a naval port 
by Napoleon, then offered a harbor which could 
only be used in summer-time, and then only when 
the weather was fine. Rotterdam had allowed the 
Maas to run so full of sand that only ships of less 
than twelve feet draught could reach her harbors. 
The only safe place which offered any accommoda- 
tions for large ships was Flushing in Zeeland. Will- 
iam III had made it an important naval base. But 
no sooner was William dead than the bankruptcy 
of the admiralty of Zeeland and the jealousy of other 
cities had allowed this harbor and its dock and 
storehouses to go to ruin. 

As for all the thousand and one things which 
go towards the equipping of ships, the committee 
found that nothing had been provided. There was 
no powder for the cannon; there were no sails; there 
was no rope ; there were no supplies. The magazines 
were empty. Where could these supplies be found, 
the commission asked, and where was the wood 
necessary for the building of new ships and the re- 
pairing of the old ones? 

This was a difficulty which soon proved to be in- 
surmountable. All the wood and all the supplies of 
every sort and description had been bought up by 
the Dutch merchants as soon as France got into 
war, and most of it had been sold abroad. What re- 
mained at home the Dutch admiralties could now 
buy only at exorbitant prices. It was to no avail, 
then, that the naval commission sent in its detailed 



232 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

report on the 10th of March, which gave the num- 
ber of ships that ought to be built, the names of the 
harbors that ought to be enlarged, indicated the 
storehouses that ought to be restocked, and speci- 
fied premiums that ought to be offered to sailors 
in order to entice them away from the more lucra- 
tive service with the merchant marine. 

To make the European political situation more 
complicated, Spain had joined France and had also 
declared war upon England. A French-Spanish 
fleet was reported to have sailed northward, in the 
direction of the English coast. It threatened to in- 
vade the British Islands. According to the treaties 
of 1678 and 1716, England had a right to demand a 
certain number of soldiers and ships from the Dutch 
Republic. 

On the 21st of July, Sir Joseph reminded the Es- 
tates of the existing treaties and in the name of the 
British government asked for assistance. This time 
the Estates General could not excuse themselves 
upon the ground that the war was being fought out- 
side of Europe. They all escaped the difficult issue 
by sending no answer at all. The Franco-Spanish 
expedition soon came to nothing, and the Republic, 
at least in this respect, was saved further trouble. 
But after each new refusal, England went a step 
farther. She now treated the ships of the United 
Provinces as if they belonged to a belligerent nation 
and refused to listen any longer to the feeble pro- 
tests which came from the Hague. The British 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 233 

minister had but one answer to give to all Dutch 
remonstrances: *'If the Republic wished to act 
openly as if she had taken the side of France, she 
ought not to expect to receive any preferential 
treatment from that country which was the chief 
sufferer through her unfriendly actions.'* 

But, behold, right in the middle of all this com- 
motion, with the Regents accusing the Prince of 
gross neglect of duty because he did not strengthen 
the fleet, and the Prince accusing the Regents of 
gross neglect of duty because they did not give 
him the funds wherewith to build new ships, and 
the crowd shouting, "Down with England!" and 
"Hurray for France and America!" the American 
Revolution came sailing into a Dutch harbor. This 
was no less a personage than Commodore Paul 
Jones, the best propagandist the American colonies 
had on the Continent. Franklin appealed to the 
fashionable element in the community by reason of 
his own studied unfashionableness. But Jones ap- 
pealed to the masses by reason of his natural char- 
acteristics. He was the mixture of pirate and gentle- 
man, blagueur and stout fighter, which will always 
make an impression upon the imagination of a 
peaceful community, those who stay at home and 
smell the smoke of battle only in their dreams. 

In the year 1778, Jones, just thirty years old, 
had been sent from America to Europe with a ship 
of eighteen guns called the Ranger. He started his 
operations in the Irish Sea and captured an English 



234 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

ship of twenty guns, the Drake. Thereupon he 
went to Brest; arrived in Brest, he sent his own ship 
back to America and assumed command of a squad- 
ron which Frankhn had equipped for him in the 
French harbor. Jones hoisted his flag on an old 
ship which had previously sailed between France 
and the Indies, which had been rebaptized the Bon 
Homme Richard, in honor of Franklin's "Poor 
Richard." The Bon Homme Richard carried thirty- 
eight guns and three hundred and eighty men, about 
one hundred of whom were Americans. The others 
came from all countries of Europe and a few from 
Asia. Jones's fleet consisted further of the Alliance, 
so called in honor of the alliance between France 
and America, and three small French ships of from 
twelve to thirty-two guns. 

With this outfit Jones sailed through the Chan- 
nel and into the North Sea, which as usual was full 
of British ships. Several times he landed on British 
territory in Scotland, and he captured some Eng- 
lish vessels. On the 23d of September, he got into 
conflict with an English squadron which was accom- 
panying a number of merchantmen to the Baltic 
Sea. The English vessels, the Serapis of forty-four 
guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, allowed the 
merchantmen to escape while they themselves re- 
mained and gave fight to the Americans. 

I take it for granted that the battle which fol- 
lowed is known to all my readers. It has been writ- 
ten about by many excellent American historians. 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 235 

As a result of the engagement the Serapis was 
surrendered, and when later in the day the Bon 
Homme Richard sank, Jones moved his flag to his 
prize and with what remained of his fleet set sail for 
France. Soon, however, it appeared that with the 
large number of wounded it was too dangerous to 
risk a trip through the English Channel, and Jones 
therefore decided to make for the nearest port, 
which in this case happened to be Texel. 

On the 4th of October of the year 1779, the Amer- 
ican flag appeared for the first time in one of the 
harbors of the Republic. It was greeted with great 
enthusiasm. The Amsterdam merchants and espe- 
cially de Neufville, who previously had conducted 
the negotiations with Lee, immediately got into 
touch with the American admiral. Van der Ca- 
pellen, who dearly loved to write letters to famous 
people and tell them all about himself and the noble 
sentiments which were ever present in his breast, 
favored Jones with an epistle from his own hand. 
He hoped that Commodore Jones would forgive an 
old and tried friend of America the liberty he was 
taking in addressing him. He gave expression to 
the unspeakable satisfaction with which he had re- 
ceived the tidings of Mr. Jones's many successes, 
and wanted an "authentick and circumstanced" 
account containing "all the particulars relating to 
a sea-fight rather to be found in the books of the 
former centuries than in our present age." Post- 
script: "Will Commodore Jones excuse the Baron 



236 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

van der Capellen's indiscretion in asking him 
whether he is an American by birth? " ^^ 

Commodore Jones, whatever his antecedents, 
was a poHshed correspondent. His letter to the 
Countess Selkirk upon the sad necessity of having 
had to take away her husband's plate, and promis- 
ing to buy it himself in order that he may gratify 
his own feelings by restoring it to her Ladyship, 
is one which might be used in our own day as a class- 
ical example of the lost art of letter- writing. 

"My Lord [his answer to Capellen began] — 
Human nature and America are under a very sin- 
gular obligation to you for your patriotism and 
friendship and I feel every grateful sentiment for 
your generous and polite letter." Then follows a 
bitter wail about the way in which he, Jones, has 
been assailed by the British press. He encloses a 
number of letters for the inspection of the Baron 
van der Capellen in order that the Baron may see 
for himself how falsely he has been accused. Alas, 
it is true he was not born in America. By birth he 
is a Briton, but fortunately he does not inherit the 
degenerate spirit of that fallen nation, which he at 
once laments and despises. America has been the 
land of his fond election from the age of thirteen, 
when he first saw it. After expressing the hope that 
the two Republics will join hands, — in which case, 
they will give Peace to the world, — Mr. Jones 
signs himself the Baron van der Capellen's very 
obliged and very obedient humble servant. 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 237 

Now, while this visit of Commodore Jones was 
most welcome to the friends of liberty and to the 
increasing number of democrats, it was very em- 
barrassing to the government at the Hague. The 
situation, indeed, was unique. A naval commander 
of a country, the existence of which was not recog- 
nized by England, at the head of a number of 
ships of a nation in open warfare with England, 
comes into a Dutch port with his vessel full of 
English prisoners of war; and before he has been 
there a week he has become a popular hero, his pic- 
ture is spread broadcast, and his fame is being sung 
in the street in popular ballads. What could the 
Estates General do.^^ Jones by his behavior did not 
give them the slightest chance to object to his pre- 
sence in one of their harbors. He was politeness 
itself. 

It happened that those few ships which the ad- 
miralties had been collecting for the protection of 
the mercantile jQeet were just at that moment 
gathered at Texel. Immediately upon arriving at 
this port, Commodore Jones had paid his respects 
to the Dutch admiral and had asked for permission 
to hire a house on shore to serve as a hospital for 
the wounded sailors. Post-haste the government 
informed the Dutch admiral not to return the visit, 
and ordered Mr. Jones to keep his wounded on 
board his ships. 

Neither were any of the French sailors allowed 
to land. This led to immediate protest from the 



238 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

French minister, who had hoped that the arrival of 
this fleet might force the RepubHc into a war with 
England. No sooner had he lodged his complaint 
than Sir Joseph descended upon the Estates Gen- 
eral and expressed himself with great violence. He 
had gone to Texel, but he had not been allowed to 
visit his imprisoned countrymen on board the Amer- 
ican ships. All his attempts to get into communica- 
tion with the British prisoners on board the Amer- 
ican ships had failed through the obstinacy of the 
Dutch authorities. Sir Joseph wanted to know 
what this meant. A certain British subject, now 
turned pirate, had taken two of His Majesty's ships 
and had brought them into a Dutch harbor. It was 
plainly the duty of the Estates General to see that 
the English prisoners in the port of Texel were at 
once set free, and to surrender Jones to the Eng- 
lish courts in order that they might hang him as a 
traitor to his country. 

To this violent outbreak the Estates General 
gave no answer. They consented, however, that 
the wounded English prisoners be sent on shore for 
treatment. At the same time they ordered the 
Dutch admiral at Texel to offer his medical assist- 
ance and medical supplies to the American wounded. 
For the Republic was now placed in such a position 
that the smallest favor shown to the English had 
to be followed by an equal favor to the French, and 
vice versa. 

After a few weeks, when the first glamour of the 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 239 

novelty of the unusual visit had worn off, the 
stringent orders forbidding American and French 
sailors to land were gradually relaxed and the 
Americans were even allowed to repair their dam- 
aged ships. To Jones this was a welcome per- 
mission. The sea around Texel was by this time 
full of English vessels. The French-American 
squadron could hardly hope to escape them. The 
longer Jones could stay on neutral ground the bet- 
ter for him. Repairs were really begun, but after 
two months nothing had been accomplished except 
that the Countess of Scarborough had been pro- 
vided with a new bowsprit. While the sailors 
worked on this bowsprit, Mr. Jones took a little 
trip through the Republic and allowed himself to be 
the subject of great popular ovations. 

But during all the excitement over Mr. Jones, the 
Estates General had not come any nearer to a final 
decision about the important question of contra- 
band. The country provinces still supported the 
demands of England. The Province of Holland, 
however, threatened to act upon her own initiative 
unless the others should discontinue their policy 
of opposing France. This threat had its effect. In 
the midst of all her difficulties, the Republic could 
not risk having her richest province secede. Some- 
thing had to be done. As usual a compromise was 
made which dissatisfied all parties. It was decided 
to gather as many ships as possible and to divide 
them into three parts. One of these was to accom- 



240 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

pany the merchantmen who were going to France, 
the other those going to the Baltic, a third one 
would protect those destined for the Mediterranean. 
England's wishes were granted in so far that such 
merchantmen as accepted the official convoy were 
not allowed to carry wood. They were allowed, 
however, to carry iron and hemp, two commodities 
which France also needed for the building of her 
ships. By the end of December, this fleet was to 
leave Texel. 

Meanwhile Sir Joseph, in order to show what the 
British government thought of this decision, once 
more came with a number of demands which it was 
impossible for the Republic to grant. What had 
become of the troops that the Republic was bound 
to send to England's assistance .f' No answer. Why 
did the Republic allow Paul Jones to stay on in her 
harbor forever? No answer. This latter question, 
however, produced a result. The Dutch govern- 
ment hinted to Jones that it was about time for him 
to finish his repairs and to favor another country 
with his presence. Mr. Jones was in no hurry and 
bided his own time. But finally, on Christmas Day 
of 1779, he slipped quietly out of the harbor and 
sailed in the direction of France, which country he 
reached in safety. 

1 Three days before his departure, the Dutch fleet, 
under command of Count van Bylandt, started on 
her voyage. Until the very last moment the Dutch 
authorities had feared that Jones would join their 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 241 

fleet, in which case no end of compKcations might 
have arisen. This one difficulty, however, they were 
spared. But there were others and enough of 
them.^^ 

Of the merchantmen that had asked for protec- 
tion, only half appeared at the place of meeting. 
The other half preferred to make the voyage at 
their own risk. For so great was the fear that the 
English might stop the fleet and search the ships 
that the insurance on the ships under convoy was 
much higher than on those that ventured out alone 
and unprotected. It had been promised that four 
more ships from Rotterdam would join van Bylandt's 
squadron when he reached the mouth of the Maas. 
Although van Bylandt waited near the Zeeland 
Islands a considerable time, no more vessels ap- 
peared. The commander of the missing ships after- 
ward excused himself because "a headwind had 
kept him in the port of Goeree." Apologies and 
excuses of this sort will be plentiful in the further 
part of our history. Van Bylandt, tired of waiting, 
continued his way alone. On the 30th of December 
he sailed into the British Channel, and soon he ap- 
proached the British shore. His arrival was immed- 
iately reported by a number of small, fast-sailing 
vessels which had been cruising around in that part 
of the sea to keep an eye on the Dutch fleet. 

The next day — the last day of the year 1779 — 
the Dutch ships passed through the Channel and 
were in the neighborhood of the Isle of Wight. 



242 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Here they were met by an English fleet of eight 
large ships, ranging from twenty-eight to ninety 
guns. Van By land t ordered the merchantmen to 
fall in line behind his five little vessels and con- 
tinued his way. The English fleet turned right 
about and accompanied the Dutch fleet at a re- 
spectful distance. Neither side showed any desire 
to begin hostilities. The English still wished, if 
possible, to avoid an open breach with the Repub- 
lic, and the Dutch commander had very strict or- 
ders to refrain from any act which might lead his 
country into war with Great Britain. During the 
morning of that day, however, the English fleet 
manoeuvred in such a way that it finally surrounded 
the Dutch squadron and their escape was impos- 
sible. During the afternoon, the British admiral, 
Charles Fielding, sent a boat to van Bylandt's flag- 
ship and informed him that he — Fielding — was 
under orders to search the Dutch ships. 

To defend himself against the superior English 
ships was impossible. Van Bylandt, therefore, tried 
to enter into negotiations. He offered to declare, 
under oath, that the merchantmen which were un- 
der his protection did not carry any contraband 
of war. Fielding answered that he had a great 
respect for Mr. van Bylandt's honor and would 
greatly like to oblige him, but that he was under 
most positive orders to make a search personally. 
Some further discussion followed between the two 
commanders, but it led to no results. Fielding in- 



,THE LAST .ENGLISH WAR 243 

sisted upon searching the Dutch ships. Van By- 
landt declared that he would fire upon the first 
English boat that should attempt to institute such 
a search. Meanwhile night had come and a goodly 
number of the Dutch ships extinguished their lights 
and escaped between the lines of the English ships 
and made for a Dutch or a French harbor. The 
morning, however, found both fleets still in the same 
position, and, as soon as daylight appeared, Field- 
ing prepared to search one of the Dutch merchant- 
men. True to his word, van Bylandt fired at the 
British boat which was being rowed to the Dutch 
ships. Immediately the British vessels turned about 
and answered by a general volley. The Dutch re- 
turned the fire as well as they could and an open 
battle was in progress. This battle lasted exactly 
five minutes. Van Bylandt, who knew the hope- 
lessness of his position, then thought that he had 
done enough for the honor of the flag and stopped 
firing. No material harm was done. The English 
proceeded to search all the merchantmen diligently, 
and discovered that nine of them were loaded with 
hemp and iron, both of which commodities, ac- 
cording to the English code, were contraband of 
war and as such should be confiscated. These nine 
ships were brought to Portsmouth, the others were 
dismissed, and the Dutch fleet, as belonging to a 
nation which was in peace and friendship with His 
British Majesty, was given permission to return to 
the fatherland. This, however, van Bylandt re- 



244 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

fused to do. He stayed with the unfortunate nine 
and accompanied them to Portsmouth, from which 
place he sent a full report of what had happened to 
the authorities in the Hague. 

As usual, the news of the affair reached the stock 
exchange long before it reached anybody else. The 
unfortunate merchant who first started the ques- 
tion, "Have you heard that these British, etc., 
etc." (stock exchange information always has had 
its own special flavor) was hooted down as a schem- 
ing speculator who was trying to influence the 
market. The way in which the people took the news 
shows us very clearly the curious state of mind 
existing in the Republic at this time. Even the 
most patriotic Hollander, now, after the lapse of a 
century, must confess that the Republic had for 
years done every conceivable thing to anger her 
mighty neighbor across the North Sea. No amount 
of violence on the part of the British government 
can excuse the attitude of our forefathers who 
persistently did things which they knew must pro- 
voke their British allies. They snubbed the British 
government on every possible occasion. They sel- 
dom if ever answered communications asking for 
explanations. They quite openly supported Great 
Britain's enemies in all parts of the globe. They 
loudly clamored for a discontinuation of the old 
amicable treaties and demanded the immediate 
conclusion of an alliance with France, England's 
bitterest foe. More than that, the principal city of 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 245 

the country had opened secret negotiations with 
the rebeUious American colonists and was only- 
waiting for the first opportunity to reap the re- 
wards of its intrigue. Then, when England, exasper- 
ated at these continual annoyances and this pro- 
longed breach of good faith, at last determined to 
take matters into her own hands, the outcry in the 
Republic was loud indeed. 

When in the due course of events, the mail — via 
Ostend — brought the authentic news of the battle 
off the Isle of Wight, Divine Providence was kept 
working overtime, listening to all the prayers of 
patriotic citizens who implored a speedy and just 
revenge upon the heads of such unbelievable 
scoundrels as the subjects of His Majesty King 
George III. 

The pamphleteer worked with a zeal only sur- 
passed by the yellow reporter of the Spanish- 
American war.^' The spirits of de Ruyter and 
Tromp were called forth from the grave to avenge 
the insult which the Dutch flag had just suffered. 
Others, with a truer conception of the actual state 
of affairs, bade the Goddess of the Republic speed 
to the grave of her great sailors and there shed tears 
over her present sad condition. Cato Batavus and 
other pseudo-classical poets (and oh, how bad the 
poetry of these Batavians was!) called upon a 
righteous Jehovah to smite the perpetrators of such 
atrocious perfidy. All of which (at sixpence a copy) 
was of great benefit to many a needy scribbler, but 



246 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

did not return the nine ships now lying in Ports- 
mouth harbor. 

The next thing on the somewhat hysterical pub- 
lic programme was to put the blame on some per- 
son. Admiral van Bylandt was the first candidate 
for the position of scapegoat. He was called back 
to Holland and placed before a court martial. This, 
however, could only exonerate him, as he could 
prove that he had only acted according to the 
sealed orders which he had received before he had 
left Texel. Who had given him those positive 
orders? Amsterdam directed the honorable pub- 
lic to the man who, as the hereditary and constitu- 
tional head of the navy, would probably know more 
about these orders than anybody else. 

The Stadholder, however, let the storm pass 
without deigning to answer. Thereupon the hon- 
orable public condemned him *'m absentia/' and 
adopted the firm belief that but for those secret 
orders, which bade the Dutch admiral avoid war at 
any cost, the five old junks under his command 
might have blown the strong British squadron from 
the face of the ocean. 

And who did finally come out of the whole affair 
with flying colors and with a halo of incorruptible 
patriotism .f^ No one else than the good town of 
Amsterdam. If only its advice had been followed; 
if only the obnoxious alliance with England had 
been broken long ago and had been replaced by a 
treaty with the great French nation (the citizens of 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 247 

which were just then starting upon that prolonged 
course of extreme dieting which ultimately led to 
the glorious Revolution) ; if only the Republic had 
listened to the sound counsel of the true patriots 
and had refused to obey a man who through tradi- 
tion and inclination was closely allied to the Re- 
public's worst enemies, then, and so on, and so on. 
With all the energy of which the town was capable 
(and until the very end of the Republic, that was a 
good deal), Amsterdam now agitated in favor of a 
repeal of the decision of November 19, 1778, which 
granted England's wishes in the matter of contra- 
band, and once more the Estates General had to 
face this momentous question. 

Less than ever did England show a desire to 
compromise. On the 28th of March, Sir Joseph 
addressed a new note of warning to the Estates. 
"The Government of His British Majesty desired 
most emphatically to know whether the Republic 
still considered herself to be England's ally or de- 
sired to be treated as any other neutral power. In 
case she preferred to renounce the alliance. His 
British Majesty would be forced to rescind all such 
privileges as the Republic had hitherto enjoyed." 
The Estates General filed this communication in 
their archives, and made no answer to it. Where- 
upon, on the 17th of April, His British Majesty, 
having lost all patience, declared that he no longer 
considered himself bound by any of the ancient 
treaties and alliances between his country and the 



248 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Seven United Netherlands, and henceforth he 
allowed all his loyal men-of-war (and his not less 
loyal and enthusiastic privateers) to stop and 
search such Dutch ships as they might encounter 
upon the high seas and to confiscate all such goods 
as were either contraband of war or were consigned 
to French customers. 

The British fleet was now in complete command 
of the Channel. With the ports of France wide 
open to Dutch goods, it was yet impossible to trans- 
port them hither except by taking the long and 
dangerous route around the north of Scotland. 
Nor did many weeks elapse before the direct re- 
sults of antagonizing England began to make them- 
selves felt. After this long period of provocation 
England no longer bothered about the fine points 
of international law. Dutch ships, no matter what 
their cargo, were without any formal process de- 
clared good prizes and were brought to English 
ports. A fleet with which to protect the Dutch 
traders did not exist. The decree of the Estates 
General of the 2d of May, 1779, ordering the im- 
mediate construction of a fleet of fifty-two vessels, 
looked extremely well on paper, but neither the 
money nor the wood nor the men necessary for 
building and equipping it had as yet been found. 

The English now extended their operations to the 
coast of Holland. English privateers closely guarded 
the mouth of the Dutch rivers. A French privateer, 
having sought shelter in the port of Hellevoetsluis, 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 249 

tried to reach the North Sea. But before he was out 
in the open, he was attacked by two English ves- 
sels. Unable to regain the safe harbor, the French- 
man beached his ship. The English ships waited 
patiently until high tide lifted the ship off, then 
boarded it and took it home as a prize. While this 
action took place there was great commotion on the 
shore. Two hundred years before, the Hollanders 
might, for lack of boats, have waded out to the 
British ships and taken them by assault, as they 
not infrequently had taken Spanish ships. In the 
year 1779, however, they looked on in profound 
indignation, referred the matter to the vengeance 
of Righteous Providence, and went home to discuss 
the affair for the next six months. The Estates 
General were foolish enough to protest in London 
against this "Insult to the Republic's sovereignty." 
It is easy to guess how respectfully such a protest 
was received. 

Now, instead of drawing a helpful lesson out 
of all these many unfortunate events, the leading 
powers in the Province of Holland, and as such the 
leading powers in the whole Republic, preferred to 
try everything but the one rational course which 
was at their disposal. The general feeling against 
England, however, was such that it would have been 
difficult, if not impossible, to convince the majority 
of the people of the desirability of establishing at 
least a modus vivendi with her overbearing neighbor 
until the day when the Republic should once more 



250 Fx\LL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

have become strong enough to maintain her rights 
by force. 

It was just at this critical moment that Catherine 
of Russia, having successfully murdered her hus- 
band and having generally established order in the 
country of her adoption, started out upon a career 
among the civilized nations of Europe and in- 
vented what has become known in history as the 
"Armed Neutrality." ^^ 

England's curious conception of international 
law and her persistent adherence to the doctrine 
that might goes before right in the matter of 
searching ships, had done damage, not only to the 
Republic, which was herself guilty of a continual 
breach of good faith, but also to less offensive 
neutrals, who were only trying to make an honest 
penny out of the existing political complications. 
The "Armed Neutrality" was a forceful proclama- 
tion of the principle that "Neutral ships make 
neutral goods." A few commodities, which by their 
very nature were contraband of war, were excepted, 
but otherwise the contracting parties maintained 
that reasonably inoffensive articles could not be 
confiscated because a board of periwigged lordships 
in the town of London held that they could be, 
and because these particular gentlemen had the 
might to enforce whatever laws they thought fit to 
proclaim. 

iThis Armed Neutrality, which began as a defens- 
ive union of the northern powers and the member- 




DRESS PARADE OF THE AMSTERDAM VOLUNTEER 

After an engraving by 







3RPS CALLED "TOT NUT DER SCHUTTERY' 
van der Meer 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 251 

ship of which was open to all interested parties, 
came as a very unwelcome surprise to England, 
which had secretly hoped to gain Her Russian 
Majesty's support for very different plans. The 
Russian fleet amounted to little and was already 
possessed of that most unfortunate habit of blowing 
itself up by the medium of gunpowder and brandy. 
On land, however, Russia was a power which had to 
be reckoned with, and for almost a generation — 
since 1763, as a matter of fact — England had not 
had a single friend or ally on the Continent. 

To the Republic, the Armed Neutrality appeared 
as a most welcome innovation, as a favor of Heaven. 
If only she could join she would be as fortunate as a 
man who is allowed to insure his house while it is 
already on fire. The five articles which the high 
contracting parties had laid down as sound princi- 
ples of international law would have been of the 
greatest benefit to the Dutch merchants. France 
advised the Republic to join the coalition at once. 
But, even in that hour of peril, the authorities in 
the Hague could not bring themselves to act with 
dispatch, and as they did not maintain a regular 
diplomatic representative in St. Petersburg, and 
had no authentic information as to the intentions of 
the very fickle Empress, they first sent two ambas- 
sadors extraordinary to the Russian capital to talk 
things over. This was a fatal mistake. Several 
months went by with unprofitable negotiations and 
the Empress became less and less willing to admit 



252 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

this bankrupt firm, which hoped to reestabHsh its 
credit by joining a more vigorous concern. As for 
the British government, it made no secret of its 
sentiments. In no vague terms the Dutch minister 
in London was informed that should the RepubHc 
join the Armed Neutrality, such an act might have 
far-reaching and serious consequences. It was the 
same old story. France said, "Do"; England said, 
"Don't"; and both threatened vengeance in case 
of disobedience. 

In the midst of the debate as to what course to 
pursue, a most unfortunate occurrence took away 
' the Republic's last chance to strengthen her desper- 
ate position. As the industrious reader may remem- 
ber, in the fall of the year 1778, Jean de Neufville, 
as the unofficial ambassador of the sovereign city of 
Amsterdam, had met Mr. Lee, the official repre- 
sentative of the American Congress, and together 
these two gentlemen had drawn up a rough draft 
of a treaty of peace and commerce which should be 
brought up in the parliaments of their respective 
countries as soon as peace between England and the 
colonies should have been declared. 

The original of this concept-treaty had been for- 
warded to America, had there been inspected by the 
powers that were, and was now on its return voyage 
to Europe. It was among the effects of Henry 
Laurens, Esq., former President of the American 
Congress and now on his way as provisory minister 
to the Hague or Amsterdam, or wherever the best 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 253 

interests of the American colonists should be found 
to lie. The chief purpose of his mission was to raise 
money, — a commodity of which the American 
rebels were in dire need. 

. On the 10th of September, Laurens set sail in the 
packet Mercurius. After two days on the New- 
foundland Banks his ship met an English man-of- 
war under command of Captain Keppel, and was 
hailed and stopped. The English captain was not 
aware of the presence of Laurens on board the ship, 
but in the course of routine he sent an officer to the 
Mercurius to examine her papers. Laurens, who 
well knew the incriminating nature of the papers he 
carried with him, repaired to his cabin and threw 
the trunk which contained his documents over- 
board. The rest of the story is familiar. The trunk 
did not sink, but swam gayly on the waters. A 
British sailor discovered it, fished it out of the deep, 
and presented it to his captain. The captain read 
the documents, and congratulated himself on his 
luck. For, he thought, and for a long period after- 
wards everybody else thought, that these docu- 
ments contained the key to all the affairs of the 
enemy — their plan of campaign as well as their 
many and varied diplomatic negotiations. Laurens 
was locked up on board the British war-vessel, 
which immediately set course for home, and on the 
1st of October landed its prisoner and his unfor- 
tunate trunk at the town of Dartmouth. The 
American was sent to the Tower and treated as a 



254 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

dangerous enemy of state. The trunk also was 
taken to London and its contents were carefully 
examined. Much to the regret of His Majesty's 
ministers, the documents did not disclose the di- 
verse wickedness of His Majesty's many enemies. 
But they contained a number of letters the ex- 
posure of which was to ^be most painful to their 
authors. ^^ 

Unfortunately the Republic suffered most 
through Laurens's clumsiness. Not less than 
seven documents reveahng the interest which the 
Republic took in American affairs were found 
among his papers. Among these seven was the ill- 
fated original of the commercial treaty drawn up 
two years before by a representative of Amsterdam 
and the American Congress. From the hand of de 
Neufville, the man who had conducted these nego- 
tiations for Amsterdam, there was also a letter 
written on the 28th of July, 1779, and addressed to 
the President of the American Congress. In this 
letter de Neufville once more assured that high func- 
tionary of Amsterdam's continued support, and 
informed him of the zeal with which Amsterdam 
represented America's interests in the Estates 
General. Document number three was a letter 
written by a certain Stockton (S. W. ; further par- 
ticulars unknown), of Amsterdam, to the Rev. Mr. 
Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and ex-President of Princeton College. 
Mr. Stockton took it for granted that Mr. Wither- 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR ^55 

spoon knew all about the secret commercial treaty 
and paid a high compliment to Mr. de Neufville, 
"who has such a clear conception of the best inter- 
ests of his country and understands that its best 
advantage lies in an alliance with France and 
America and not with England." Then followed a 
eulogy of the democratic — the so-called Patriotic 
party. The unfortunate Patriots, according to Mr. 
Stockton, had a very hard time of it defending 
themselves against the intrigues of the Stadholder, 
who was the most intimate friend of the King of 
England, and who, according to current reports, 
had exactly as much love for liberty as His British 
Majesty. The Stadholder is accused generally of 
being responsible for every calamity that has so 
far befallen the Republic. He alone is responsible 
for the laxity with which the Republic is espousing 
the cause of the Americans. 

Document number four was of a more practical 
nature. It was a list of rich people who might pos- 
sibly have money available for an American loan. 
This list had been prepared by a certain Dircks, a 
soldier of fortune, who had been an officer in the 
American army and who was considered a sort of 
specialist on American affairs. He had come into 
the good graces of the Baron van der Capellen, and 
corresponded with him until the friendship was 
broken off by a violent quarrel. 

Letter number five was written by a certain 
Gillon, who had come to Europe to supervise the 



256 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

construction of two new American war- vessels 
which were to be built in a French port. In his 
report, directed to John Rutledge, the Governor of 
South Carolina, Gillon writes that the plan for their 
construction had failed, but that he had spent his 
credits for powder and other necessities of war. 
These were purchased from Nicholas and Jan van 
Staphorst, two honorable Amsterdam merchants, 
and had been forwarded to America via St. Eusta- 
tius, the ordinary route for smuggled goods. Mr. 
Gillon, too, has high hopes of an American loan, to 
be placed among the Amsterdam merchants. Of 
course, so he points out, it is impossible for the 
Hollanders to take the side of America openly, but 
they are quite willing to support the good cause 
secretly with their money. Therefore, he thinks it 
would be well if the Congress of America should send 
a special minister to the Republic, and not conduct 
its Dutch affairs as it has done hitherto through 
their diplomatic representatives who reside in 
Paris. 

Finally, there were two letters from van der 
Capellen. They did not show to whom they had 
been addressed. The first one, dated ZwoUe, 
April 28, 1778, contained an expression of the pleas- 
ure the writer had experienced upon hearing of 
new American victories. Then followed the cus- 
tomary enumerations of his own humble endeav- 
ors on behalf of the just cause of the American 
revolutionists; how he had translated the work of 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 257 

the Rev. Dr. Price; how he alone in the RepubHc 
was fighting for the rights of the Americans; and 
how he would love to offer his life for the righteous 
Cause of Liberty were it not that a tender wife and 
a small son detained him at home, where he could 
fight the good fight only in a humble way with his 
pen and by word of mouth. Then we return to solid 
earth and find a sentence which must have inter- 
ested his readers infinitely more than the rhetorical 
outburst that had gone before. For at the end of 
his letter van der Capellen gives his correspondent 
some advice as to how the American loan could be 
best placed, and how a serious attempt should be 
made to induce people to sell their English secur- 
ities and to replace them by American ones. 

The second letter of van der Capellen was dated 
later (September), after the Americans had suffered 
several reverses. In this one he expresses his fear 
that it will now be more difficult to get money from 
the Hollanders than before, and he advises the 
Americans to provide the European public with 
more reliable news than they are getting at that 
moment in order that they may know exactly how 
things stand in the continent across the ocean and 
may not be misguided by English reports. 

After all that had gone before, these seven docu- 
ments, showing the actual participation and the 
direct encouragement which the Hollanders had 
given to the American rebels, could not be expected 
to arouse.in England any feelings of deep approval. 



258 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

It was made very evident to His Majesty's minis- 
ters that, while the Stadholder professed an honest 
desire to maintain good relations with England, the 
town of Amsterdam was forcing upon the whole 
country a policy which was absolutely opposed to 
that which William tried to follow, and was con- 
ducting the country's political affairs very much as 
if she were lord and master over the whole com- 
monwealth. 

Therefore, instead of immediately declaring war 
upon the Republic, the British government decided 
first to try and use the incriminating evidence to 
break the power of Amsterdam in the Estates Gen- 
eral and to strengthen the position of the Stad- 
holder. Accordingly, on the 11th of October, the 
documents were sent to the British minister in the 
Hague to be used by him as he thought best. 

On the 16th of October, Sir Joseph presented 
them to the Stadholder. William accepted them, 
but, ever unable to make a quick decision, he lost 
four days before he could make up his mind what 
to do. This delay was of great advantage to Am- 
sterdam, which, being immediately informed of 
what had happened, could now prepare her defense 
in all leisure. 

With great energy she agitated for an immediate 
decision upon the question of joining the Armed 
Neutrality, and as a matter of fact, on the 19th of 
October, the Estates of Holland, with a large ma- 
jority, voted in favor of accepting the conditions 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 259 

which Russia imposed before she would allow the 
Republic to join the coalition. After this decision 
of Holland, it would be impossible for the other 
provinces to oppose the plan, even if they felt so 
inclined. 

A day later, on the 20th of October, the Stad- 
holder appeared in the secret committee on foreign 
affairs of the Estates General and in the meeting of 
the Estates of Holland, and read to the members 
the papers which the British minister had given 
him. At the same time he solemnly declared that 
he himself had never been aware of the existence 
of a commercial treaty with the American colonies 
or known about the negotiations concerning such 
a treaty. All of which was undoubtedly true. The 
Estates of Holland seconded his sentiments. They 
thanked the Stadholder for his paternal care for the 
interests of the country, and solemnly professed 
that they, too, were entirely unaware of the exist- 
ence of such a treaty as had been just read to them. 
Furthermore, they declared that they had never 
even recognized the independence of the United 
States, and that, before they could do anything else, 
they should have to hear what Amsterdam, the real 
offending party, had to say for herself. After which 
the Stadholder, having performed his duty to the 
satisfaction of himself and all those concerned, 
repaired home, and the town of Amsterdam was 
requested to account for her conduct within five 
days. 



260 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

During the next few days the news of this latest 
deed of Amsterdam traveled throughout the coun- 
try, and it was received with very httle approval. 
To hate England in the abstract, to twist the Brit- 
ish Lion's tail in an alehouse discussion, was one 
thing. To suffer pecuniary loss through the claws 
of the same animal was quite a different story. So 
many Dutch ships had by this time fallen into 
British hands that prudence was almost gaining 
over hysteria. What would become of them, the 
people asked, if the English should really declare 
war upon them at that very moment.^ Would 
Amsterdam, which had driven the country directly 
into the conflict, then step forward and defend it 
against the British fleet ? 

But those who expected that the proud city 
would now make humble apologies, and express 
regret at the reckless way in which she had imper- 
iled the safety of all the provinces, were mistaken. 
When the day for an explanation came, the mayors 
of the town were quite willing to take the blame of 
the provisional American treaty upon themselves. 
In a sort of offhand way and in a tone of injured 
innocence they declared that they had only acted 
for the general good and in order that the Republic 
might be the first to profit from the American trade, 
once peace between England and the colonies 
should be established.^*^ 

This explanation, given in a tone of "what is all 
this excitement about anyway," was not acceptable 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 261 

to the British government. The poor Stadholder, 
instead of using the papers to destroy the power of 
Amsterdam, — as had been the intention of the 
British ministers, — had muddled up affairs in such 
a way that Amsterdam got out of the affair with a 
certain halo of patriotism — with the reputation of 
having acted for the benefit of the fatherland. The 
British government now no longer bothered about 
the Stadholder, but addressed itself directly to the 
Estates. It sent what was practically an ultima- 
tum, asking for an apology from the government 
of Amsterdam and demanding severe punishment 
for the Pensionaris of that town, who had sanc- 
tioned the negotiation of this secret treaty. 

War with England was now imminent. We, 
therefore, might have expected some dispatch, not 
only in answering the last note of the British min- 
ister, but also in the matter of joining the Armed 
Neutrality. The latter question, after the favorable 
decision of the Estates of Holland, had again been 
lost in the labyrinth of committees and subcommit- 
tees of the country's complicated government. 

But nothing happened. The first weeks of No- 
vember were spent in further deliberations. A ma- 
jority of the seven provinces gradually expressed 
the opinion that it would be, perhaps, wise to in- 
struct the Dutch representatives in St. Petersburg 
to sign the document which would admit the Re- 
public to the benefits of the Armed Neutrality. But 
in order that all things might be done in decency 



262 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

and without haste, and probably in the vague hope 
that something might turn up at the last moment 
and that conditions might miraculously improve, 
it was decided not to inform the other European 
nations of this step until six more weeks should 
have elapsed. 

As to the punishing of Amsterdam, the opinions 
were greatly divided. The mayors of Amsterdam, 
in acting upon their own authority and without 
consulting the central government, had after all 
only done what every other city and village was in 
the habit of doing constantly. The central gov- 
ernment was at best a necessary nuisance, which 
worked with such exceeding clumsiness that it 
should be consulted as little as possible. 

After three weeks of discussion on this matter, 
no definite decision had as yet been reached. The 
Estates of Holland and the Estates General then 
declared themselves ready officially to disapprove 
Amsterdam's action and to inform the British gov- 
ernment of this decision. 

Sir Joseph, however, made it clear that no such 
halfway measure would be acceptable to his coun- 
try. In rapid succession he sent the Estates a num- 
ber of notes which left no doubt as to their meaning. 
Without exception, these notes were left unan- 
swered. Another month had gone by, and it was 
now near the middle of December. As it was be- 
coming more evident each day that nothing was 
"going to turn up," the Estates General decided 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 263 

that there was no longer any profit to be derived 
from their air of mystery in regard to the Armed 
Neutrahty. Accordingly, on the 10th of December, 
the different European powers were informed that 
the Republic had joined the neutrality coalition, 
and would they kindly take notice of this fact. 

This information, however, reached London too 
late to be of any benefit. It was winter, and a 
severe storm raged on the North Sea. The mail 
was delayed for many days, and when at last the let- 
ter of the Dutch government reached London, the 
British government had already decided to declare 
war upon the Republic. It came to this decision 
solely upon the ground that the Dutch government 
refused to give redress for the behavior of Amster- 
dam. The inexcusable delay in informing the other 
powers of her decision to join the Armed Neutrality 
made it possible for England to declare war with- 
out once referring to this matter. In this way, the 
government of His Majesty escaped the risk of 
making an enemy of Catherine of Russia by declar- 
ing war upon one of her allies. England could now 
say: "We declared war upon the Republic before 
we had been informed of the fact that she was one 
of the members of Your Majesty's coalition." At 
the same time, it would offer Catherine a chance to 
refuse the Republic admission, as being "no longer 
a neutral, but the participant in a war." 

In this diplomatic game as well as in the actual 
war that followed, England was in every instance 



264 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

the superior of the RepubHc. In England there was 
an actual government — a guiding hand that knew 
what it wanted. In the Republic there was anarchy 
and a score of little potentates who worked out their 
own little intrigues and thought only of their own 
immediate interests. 

The same storm which had delayed the Dutch 
mail detained the ship that was bringing Sir Joseph 
orders to leave the Hague at once. On the 23d of 
December, he left for Ostend, regretted by no one. 
The Dutch minister in London stayed at his post a 
week longer. On the 29th of December, he tried 
once more to have an interview with the British 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, who, however, re- 
gretted that he was not able to receive him. As a 
farewell greeting, he presented the Dutchman with 
an exposition of his views. 

"For many years," so he wrote, "the Republic, 
which was closely connected with England by many 
treaties and alliances, has secretly aided England's 
enemies, has persistently refused to perform such 
acts as it was bound to perform by reason of the 
aforesaid treaties, and has steadily refused to com- 
ply with any of England's wishes. Finally the gov- 
ernment of the Republic has allowed a single one of 
her cities to assume the sovereignty over the whole 
country, and the Estates General have been either 
unable or unwilling to force this one city to obey 
the stipulations of the treaties existing between the 
two countries." 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR ^65 

The Dutch minister left London, and by the first 
of the year 1781, the whole country knew that once 
more, and for the fourth time in its history, a war 
with England had broken out. Now, what sort of 
an impression did this news have? Incredible 
though it may seem, it was at first received with 
very general satisfaction. No doubt the merchants 
knew that during the beginning of the war the Re- 
public could not expect to be successful. But after 
the first losses caused by the unpreparedness of 
the Dutch fleet and army, they hoped that with the 
help of France and with the cooperation of the 
American colonists, who showed no signs of weak- 
ening in their struggle for freedom, England could 
be brought to terms. *^ 

The democrats welcomed the war as a chance of 
getting even with England. At last the time of 
wavering was over. No longer was it necessary to 
submit patiently to insult and injury, but open 
warfare was to decide the merits of the prolonged 
quarrel. They even fancied they saw the Republic 
play a role as the defender of human rights, meting 
out punishment to the perfidious Briton who so 
long had escaped the wrath of a just Jehovah. 

But, most of all, there was rejoicing among the 
Regents. Their anti-British policy of the last years 
had been in reality a movement against the Stad- 
holder. The welfare of the country meant little to 
them compared to the interest of their own class. 
They foresaw (what actually did happen) that 



266 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

when once war should have broken out, the Prince 
would be utterly incapable of conducting it with 
any vigor and would lose himself so entirely in un- 
important details that no enterprise of any import- 
ance would ever be undertaken. The worse the 
Stadholder should mismanage the affairs of the 
navy (and he alone as commander-in-chief was re- 
sponsible), the better it would be for the prestige of 
the Regents. 

For the first time in the history of the Republic 
the majority of the people were no longer entirely 
on the side of the Prince of Orange. The utter in- 
capacity of the Princes of the House of Nassau- 
Diez, — the line to which the Frisian stadholders 
belonged, — their lack of political sagacity, their 
awkwardness in dealing with the people, their fool- 
ish pride, which did not allow them to make friends 
even among their most faithful adherents, in one 
word, their absolute separateness from their people 
in their daily joys and sorrows; — all of these qual- 
ities had begun to do their work. The century-old 
affection of the common people for any member of 
that famous family, to which more than anybody 
or anything else they owed their independence and 
their prosperity, had at last begun to show signs of 
weakening. What good did it do these princes that 
they led a proper life, went to church on Sundays, 
surrounded themselves with a crowd of equally 
excellent, dull, and bigoted courtiers; taught their 
children the Heidelberg Catechism and led in 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 267 

prayer-meetings at home, when they persisted in 
keeping a continual abyss between themselves and 
their subjects? 

The popular feeling that, so long as a Prince of 
the House of Orange was at the head of affairs, 
everything was all right, died hard. The people 
would have greatly preferred obeying William to 
taking orders from the unpopular Regents. They 
did not desert the Stadholder. It was the Stad- 
holder who deliberately deserted them. 

An inventive journalist of that day wrote that 
England had begun her war upon the Repubhc be- 
cause she needed ready money. The country, so he 
reasoned, had, during the many years of warfare in 
all parts of the world, contracted an enormous debt. 
Taxes were high, and could not be increased with- 
out inconveniencing the public. It was difficult to 
see who would grant England a new loan. An easy 
way out of the difficulty was provided by a war with 
the rich Republic. This fantastic story, if it did not 
give the true cause of the war, certainly painted its 
immediate effect. 

England grew rich at the expense of Holland. In 
the first place, while the war lasted England did not 
need to pay the interest on the Dutch money in- 
vested in its national debt or its private enterprises. 
In this way the Dutch shareholders lost several mil- 
lion pounds which now remained in the treasury of 
the British government or in the pocket of the Eng- 
lish manufacturer. 



268 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

In the second place, England so completely com- 
manded the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean that 
it could, by declaring war at an unexpected moment, 
count upon capturing the larger part of the Dutch 
merchantmen, who would only hear of the existence 
of war after they were in the possession of some 
British privateer. When the war broke out, Am- 
sterdam, according to the insurance written out, 
had some fifteen million guilders invested in ships 
and merchandise that were still on the high seas. 
The other Dutch cities together were interested up 
to approximately fifty million guilders. This shows 
us what large sums were at issue. 

In the third place, England could now positively 
prevent the smuggling trade in America and deprive 
the American colonists of their chief source of sup- 
ply of all their necessaries of war. 

Finally, the British fleet, which was complete 
master of the Caribbean Sea, could take such Dutch 
colonies as it wished, and in case of peace could use 
them to enforce certain concessions. 

The Dutch minister in London had been very 
slow in informing his home government about the 
course of events. In a time when days and hours 
counted, he took weeks about his official notices. 
It had therefore been impossible to warn the Dutch 
vessels that were still on the North Sea, and within 
six days after war had been declared sixty Dutch 
ships had fallen into British hands. By the 1st 
of February the number of ships that were lost 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 269 

exceeded more than two hundred, and they repre- 
sented a value of almost twenty-five million 
guilders. 

It was of little benefit to the Republic that she 
could raise a loan of fourteen million guilders at a 
rate of interest of only two and a half per cent, and 
that the admiralties were authorized to increase the 
premium for service with the fleet to fifty guilders. 
The loan was immediately taken up because the 
two and a half per cent was guaranteed, but even 
with the higher premium no sailors came to man 
the ships. Such Dutch merchantmen as had sought 
refuge in foreign harbors were left to their own 
fate. They either sold their cargo as best they could 
and laid up to wait for the end of the war, or 
they were sold to a foreign firm, and henceforward 
sailed under a foreign flag. 

The old love for privateering, once so strongly 
developed in the people along the coast, seemed to 
have died out. Few or no letters of marque were 
issued. In England, on the other hand, every town 
and village along the coast participated in the lu- 
crative business of capturing Dutch ships. Within 
a few months more than five hundred British ships 
patrolled the North Sea, and they inspired such fear 
that no Dutch ship ventured to leave the Maas or 
the roads of Texel. 

The Baltic trade was completely at a standstill. 
Where formerly thousands of Dutch ships had 
passed through the Sont, only eleven were reported 



270 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

during the first year of the war. The blockade was 
so perfect that even the East and West India Com- 
panies could not get a single ship through. Some 
of their vessels had been taken; others received 
a timely warning, continued their way home along 
the north coast of Ireland and Scotland, and spent 
years in the Norwegian harbors where they had 
taken refuge. For the first time in more than a 
century and a half the East India Company could 
not hold its regular auctions of Indian products. 
Finally no more ships were sent from India, and 
the company's products lay rotting in her store- 
houses. 

The East India Company could at least count 
itself happy that she lost none of her Asiatic pos- 
sessions, for England was so busily engaged in its 
war for the supremacy in America that it had no 
ships available for conquests in India, where the 
uprising of Hyder Ali engaged all her military 
forces. 

The West India Company, however, fared very 
badly. The larger part of the British fleet was as- 
sembled in the North and Central American waters. 
Immediately upon the declaration of war the Brit- 
ish government had sent word to Sir George Rod- 
ney, who commanded in the Caribbean Sea, to pro- 
ceed against the Dutch colonies. This order reached 
him in Barbados on the 27th of January, 1781. 
Three days later, Rodney with a fleet of eighteen 
vessels appeared before Port Royale on Martinique. 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 271 

Here he left six vessels under Admiral Drake to 
watch the French squadron which lay in the harbor, 
well defended by the guns of a number of strong 
fortifications. With the rest of his fleet he con- 
tinued his way. 

Early on the morning of the 3d of February, the 
advance guard of the British fleet under Sir Samuel 
Hood arrived before the harbor of St. Eustatius.^^ 
Here the population knew of no war, and made 
ready to receive the unwelcome English guests 
with such courtesies as the occasion demanded. 
Hood, however, did not come on shore, but waited 
until the afternoon, when the rest of Rodney's fleet 
came up and surrounded the small island. In the 
harbor of St. Eustatius there was one Dutch man- 
of-war, of thirty-six guns, commanded by Count 
Frederic van Bylandt, an officer of experience who 
had served under his namesake, Louis van Bylandt, 
at the encounter near the Isle of Wight. During 
the afternoon of the 3d, van Bylandt sent an officer 
to the English admiral to welcome him officially 
and offer his kind services. The English admiral 
then informed the Hollander that war had broken 
out between their respective countries and that 
the Island of St. Eustatius must be at once sur- 
rendered. The harbor was defended by an old fort- 
ress, called Fort Oranje. It did not have a single 
gun which could be fired, and was manned by a few 
old veterans, who were kept on the island as pen- 
sioners. Van Bylandt with his single ship made 



£72 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

an attempt at defense. He was immediately sur- 
rounded by half a dozen British ships, and before 
their superior number he was forced to surrender. 

Without further trouble the English then took 
the island and all its belongings. It seems incred- 
ible that the West India Company should have so 
neglected the defense of this colony, which for many 
years had been a veritable gold mine to her. When 
Rodney took possession of St. Eustatius he found 
one hundred and fifty ships in its harbor. A great 
many of these were American vessels. The two 
thousand American sailors who manned them were 
taken prisoners. The storehouses which lined the 
harbor contained goods which were valued at not 
less than forty million guilders. They now passed 
into the possession of the English. Rodney kept the 
Dutch flag flying over the old fort. In this way 
during the next few weeks a number of ships, which 
were still unaware of what had happened, visited 
the harbor, without suspecting anything, and were 
promptly captured. 

But that was not all. The British admiral upon 
landing learned that just twenty-four hours before 
his arrival, twenty-three Dutch ships, under the 
protection of a single war-vessel, had left St. Eus- 
tatius bound for home. He at once sent two of his 
largest ships in pursuit of them. 

The Dutch vessels were sailing along in a lei- 
surely way. They were easily overtaken by the 
English ships. The Dutch captain tried to defend 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 273 

himself. Unfortunately his ship had been con- 
structed after a wrong plan, which made it impos- 
sible to use the lower batteries without at the same 
time swamping the ship. The Dutch commander was 
killed in the beginning of the battle, and before he 
had time to take off his dressing-gown and slippers. 
After forty minutes of fighting a number of men 
were dead or wounded, and the ship was sinking. 
The flag was hauled down. Of the twenty-three 
merchantmen, only one escaped. The others were 
brought back to St. Eustatius.^^ 

Such was the beginning of the war, and the end 
was no better. The Armed Neutrality, of which 
such great expectations had been cherished, proved 
to be utterly useless. Denmark and Sweden were 
inclined to help the Republic if Russia would pro- 
mise to do the same. But Catherine had not the 
slightest desire to start a war for the benefit of the 
Estates who had only joined her coalition as a last 
refuge. She was willing to mediate between Eng- 
land and the Republic, but since the war had been 
begun before the Republic had actually joined the 
Armed Neutrality, she could not offer to do any- 
thing else. Thereupon Denmark and Sweden also 
expressed their unwillingness to interfere, and the 
Republic was left entirely to her own fate. France, 
which had forced her into this war, was much too 
occupied trying to save her own skin to pay any 
attention to the sufferings of the Republic. 
. More than a month after all these things had 



274 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

happened (on the 5th of March, to be exact), the 
first Dutch ship, commanded by Captain de Roock, 
appeared in the West Indies to inform the Dutch 
colonists that a war between the mother country 
and England had broken out. All that Captain de 
Roock could do was to return home at once and in- 
form the authorities that most of their American 
colonies had passed into the hands of the British 
at precisely the moment when he received his first 
orders to cross the ocean. 

During the first six months of the war, nothing 
was done to repair the damage effected by Eng- 
land's first attacks. The fleet, which had been sys- 
tematically neglected for almost a century, could 
not be repaired within a few months. There was 
no money, there was no wood, there was no man- 
agement. The Prince was busy day and night and 
accomplished nothing. Orders were given one day 
and were revoked the next. The war was not in the 
least popular with the officers and the sailors, who 
feared that their ships were to act only as an auxil- 
iary squadron to the French fleet. Under all sorts 
of pretexts, mostly on the ground of the inefficiency 
of the sailors and the poor condition of the ships, 
the officers refused to obey the orders to leave port. 
The Estates General kept up a continual com- 
plaint about the inactivity of the fleet, and clamored 
for a few good ships which could at least bring home 
the many Dutch ships now lying in near-by foreign 
ports. The suspension of the Baltic trade was felt 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 275 

as a great blow, and from all sides it was demanded 
that something be done to protect the ships loaded 
with grain and wood bound for Russia and Sweden. 

In April the Prince, in order to show his good 
intentions, went to Texel to confer with the com- 
manders of the fleet on the best way in which to 
conduct the war and protect the Dutch trade. It 
was found that as yet nothing could be done. There 
were only eight small vessels capable of putting to 
sea. Not until May would there be enough ships 
to allow an action with a fair chance of success. 

From all sides the blame was put upon the Stad- 
holder. The large cities, with their population de- 
pending entirely upon trade for a living, suffered 
bitterly. Prices went up and ready money could 
hardly be obtained for less than ten or eleven per 
cent. In view of all this misery, why did not the 
Stadholder cause the fleet to leave port and bring 
home a few of the much-needed ships? 

It was then that Amsterdam spoke a word in his 
defense. The Stadholder had to attend to so many 
things that he could not adequately perform his 
many tasks. Would it not be a good idea to appoint 
an advisory board to help His Highness in his la- 
bors? This plan, which Amsterdam now brought up 
in the meeting of the Estates of Holland, was by 
no means a new one. Many years before, Bentinck 
had suggested the institution of a responsible 
ministry to the Princess Anna. Ever since, the idea 
had been referred to from time to time. But it 



276 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

was not in the nature of either Anna or of her son 
to allow others to help them. They were too sus- 
picious. They preferred to leave numberless things 
undone rather than share the responsibility with 
some one else. 

Nor was the plan carried out at this time. In- 
stead of having a secretary of the navy or a board 
of advisers which would exercise such power, Will- 
iam was left to his own fate and such counsel as the 
Duke of Brunswick could give him. But the days 
of this adviser were numbered. The Duke had 
gradually lost the confidence of all parties because 
he had tried to keep the friendship of all. In the 
quarrel between Amsterdam and the Stadholder, 
he had not dared to advise the Prince to break 
Amsterdam's power for good and all, even at a 
temporary sacrifice of the internal peace of the 
country. He had allowed his chance to go by, and 
since Amsterdam had been victorious all along the 
line he could expect no clemency on her part. His 
removal became Part I of the programme of the 
campaign which was being waged against the Stad- 
holder. 

An approaching storm, either against a person 
or against an institution, was in those days always 
heralded by an increased activity on the part of the 
pamphleteers.** The Duke of Brunswick, once the 
best friend of the country, whose valuable services 
could not be well enough rewarded, now became 
an "undesirable citizen," "an alien," who through 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 277 

his friendship for England had brought grave dan- 
ger to the country which had done so well by him, 
and so on, through all the grades up to the most 
disgusting scandal. The accusations, however, did 
not disturb the Duke. Though he had hardly an- 
other friend left in the Republic, he could still 
count upon the loyalty of the Prince, who, against 
the wishes of his own wife (who had come to dislike 
the Duke most sincerely), supported his former 
guardian against all opposition. Even when Am- 
sterdam in a solemn audience informed William 
that so long as the Duke of Brunswick should be his 
adviser, no amicable dealings between the Stad- 
holder and the principal city of the land would be 
possible, the Prince did not give in. On the contrary, 
for once he lost his temper in righteous anger, sent 
the Amsterdam delegation about its business, and 
immediately told the Duke about all that had hap- 
pened. 

In the period which now followed the whole 
country became one large "debating society," with 
the subject of the debate: Resolved, that the Duke 
of Brunswick be dismissed as adviser of the Stad- 
holder. Amsterdam started the discussion with a 
pamphlet which contained all the many accusations 
the town had brought before the Prince in support 
of her demand for the Duke's dismissal. The Duke 
then answered with a printed apology, in which he 
returned Amsterdam's compliments. Up and down 
the land the discussion, upon the truth or the lack 



278 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of truth of one or the other statement, raged with 
great violence. 

The Prince, who for once in his Hf e had shown 
gratitude to a man who had befriended him, now 
found himself between two fires. While the war 
with England continued and the country was con- 
tinually getting into a worse economic position, the 
citizens were flying at one another's throats on the 
question as to what should happen to the German 
Duke who for the last twenty years by their own 
permission had pulled the strings of their political 
theatre. The Prince and the Duke tried to get an 
open reparation for Amsterdam's accusations in an 
investigation which they asked to be instituted in 
the Estates General. It was hoped that in that 
body the influence of the Prince upon the country 
provinces would be able to effect a decision in favor 
of the Duke and against Amsterdam. But it ap- 
peared that several of the most loyal provinces, 
even Friesland, where the ancestors of William had 
been stadholders since the beginning of the Repub- 
lic, had experienced a change of heart. 

The investigation started by the Estates Gen- 
eral, which in the ordinary course of business had 
again been referred to the estates of the different 
provinces, threatened to be another defeat for the 
Stadholder. The Duke then recognized the futil- 
ity of further struggle, and decided not to wait 
for a final decision. On the 24th of May, 1782, 
he left the Hague and went to Bois-le-Duc, where 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 279 

he had command of the fortifications. There he 
remained for several years in the vague hope that 
a reaction might set in in favor of the Stadholder 
and himself. 

Now,' while all this dirty political linen was being 
washed as much in public as possible, what had be- 
come of the war.f^ The war had almost been for- 
gotten. Instead of fighting their enemies, the peo- 
ple preferred to fight their own Stadholder and to 
use the British merely as a convenient background. 
Indeed, the attack upon the Prince was so success- 
ful, with the scenery of blood and murder provided 
by the war, that many of the Stadholder's enemies 
prayed for a continuation of the conflict, in order 
that they might the better continue their fight 
against his power. 

As a pleasant relief in these mean political 
squabbles, we must mention the arrival of the first 
American minister to the Republic, sent to replace 
Laurens, who still graced the Tower of London with 
his presence. John Adams, a graduate of Har- 
vard College in 1775, later second President of the 
United States, arrived in the Republic in the year 
of our Lord 1781. There was considerable difficulty 
about his status, as only Friesland had as yet re- 
cognized the independence of the United States, 
the Estates General having so far failed to do this. 
But Adams, like the thirsty traveler who bothers 
not about registering, but at once makes for the 
room where good things are dispensed, took himself 



mo FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

immediately to Amsterdam, where the supposed 
fleshpots of the RepubHc were to be found, and 
started a new agitation for a large American loan. 
At first he was not successful. News of the capitu- 
lation of Charleston and the invasion of Georgia 
had just reached the Republic, and the cause of the 
colonists was not looked upon in quite so favorable 
a light as before. While the Dutch had completely 
lost their heads in their violent partisanships and 
their political quarrels, they were still unwilling to 
venture good money on bad securities. 

Van der Capellen, who had just then inherited 
some money from his mother-in-law, was willing 
to risk a few thousand dollars. He also wrote to his 
friends and asked them to do the same. But their 
sentiments stopped where dividends began, and 
Adams had to wait until a year later, when a final 
turn in the affairs of the colonists, and the cer- 
tainty that they would gain their independence and 
would be able to pay their lawful debts, convinced 
the Dutch business world that an American loan 
was no longer connected with an extraordinary 
peril. 

More than once during the war did England try 
to influence the Republic to conclude a peace. The 
terms which she offered were acceptable, were, in- 
deed, infinitely better than the weak Republic had 
any right to expect. But each time the" British 
secret agent who was sent to Holland to suggest 
a cessation of hostilities met with failure. The 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 281 

Regents continued to maintain a vague hope that 
France might come to her assistance. 

Wilham, now left entirely to his own devices, was 
still puttering away at the fleet. After endless 
debates, at last a small squadron was collected to 
protect the ships bound for the Baltic. On the 
20th of July, 1781, this fleet of eight ships of 
twenty-four to twenty-six guns each, commanded 
by Zoutman, left Texel accompanying seventy-one 
merchantmen, who were bound for northern ports. 
On the 5th of August, on the Dogger Bank it met 
with an English fleet, protecting two hundred Eng- 
lish traders which had just left the Baltic and which 
were now on their w^ay home. The British, who 
were under command of Hyde Parker, had the same 
number of ships as the Dutch, but they were of 
much larger tonnage and carried from forty to 
eighty guns each. In the fight which now occurred 
the Dutch sailors conducted themselves with great 
valor and not without success. All the merchant 
vessels were able to escape. When evening came, 
both fleets were so disabled that neither could con- 
tinue the fight another day. They made for the near- 
est ports. The Dutch had lost one hundred and 
forty-two men and one ship, and had four hundred 
and three men wounded. The English losses about 
equaled the Dutch, but none of their ships were 
lost. Zoutman's fight caused unprecedented joy in 
the Republic. In open battle his men had held their 
own against great odds. A wave of enthusiasm 



282 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

spread over the country. It manifested itself in 
patriotic odes to the vaHant shades of the ancestors, 
in gifts of swords and medals to the sailors who had 
actually taken part in the combat, and in an impos- 
ing funeral to those who had given their lives for 
their country. Even the Prince came in for some 
praise. Of practical results, however, the battle had 
none. The Dutch ships were in such a disabled 
condition that when, after almost two weeks, Zout- 
man finally reached Texel, it was evident that, for 
that year at least, the fleet could not again leave 
port. A very little glory was the sole consolation 
for the failure in getting the merchant fleet into the 
Baltic. ^^ 

After a few weeks the natural reaction set in, and 
the heroes that had just been extolled to the sky 
were once more pulled to earth. By this time the 
Republic had met with difiiculties from an entirely 
different quarter. While the commotion about the 
Duke of Brunswick's removal was in full swing, 
the Republic had been honored by a visit from Jo- 
seph II, Emperor of Austria. Joseph had just paid 
a visit of state to his Belgian provinces, and, under 
the incognito of Count Falckenstein, had made a 
little trip of inspection through the Republic. The 
Republic had invited him to watch the laundering 
of its political linen, and Joseph had speedily seen 
that from these United Provinces no peril on earth 
need be expected. Therefore, as soon as he returned 
home, he informed the Estates General that the 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 283 

Barriere had ceased to exist. This Barriere con- 
sisted of a number of fortifications along the French 
frontier which, since the year 1715, had been occu- 
pied by Dutch troops in order to protect Holland 
against another French invasion. Their original 
purpose had almost been forgotten. At the present 
time, when the Republic and France were intimate 
friends, there was absolutely no occasion for these 
fortifications. They were badly garrisoned, their 
ramparts had been turned into cow pastures and 
bleacheries, and for the sake of economy they had 
been generally neglected for many years. Joseph 
considered the existence of these Dutch troops on 
Belgian soil an insult to the honor of his own private 
establishment. Accordingly he descended upon the 
fortifications, sent the Dutch troops home, razed 
the ramparts, and without a word of explanation 
declared the Barriere abolished. The Estates Gen- 
eral, having no possible way of redress, had to bear 
the inevitable as best they could. They found some 
consolation in the fact that the Austrian Emperor 
had not at the same time decided to open the river 
Scheldt, an occurrence which they had great reason 
to fear at almost any moment. 

About the rest of the English war, we can be very 
brief. Except for the encounter on the Dogger no 
event of importance happened on the high seas. 
The Dutch trade suffered terribly, while Hamburg, 
Bremen, and a number of Scandinavian cities pro- 
fited by taking the places vacated by the Dutch 



284 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

merchants. The friendship with France, for which 
such great sacrifices had been made, cost the Re- 
pubhc much and brought no profits. In September 
of the year 1782, plans were made for a common ac- 
tion of the French and the Dutch fleets. The Dutch 
fleet was to join the French one in Brest. But again 
the Dutch ofiicers opposed this plan. Their fear 
that they would be commanded by a French ad- 
miral made them find a number of excuses to delay 
the departure of the expedition. Several of the best 
officers even asked for leave of absence for a pro- 
longed period. The ships were never ready, the men 
were never trained, the weather was too stormy, or 
there was too little wind. In December the fleet 
was still in the roads of Texel. The combined ac- 
tion of the French and Dutch fleet never took place 
at all. This experience caused a good deal of resent- 
ment in France, which thereafter turned a deaf ear 
to the wishes of her incompetent Dutch friends and, 
in February of 1783, concluded peace with England 
without consulting the Republic. 

Seven months later, England recognized the in- 
dependence of the American colonies. The Amer- 
ican adventure, entered upon partly out of hope 
for gain and partly out of sentiment, brought the 
Republic nothing but disappointment. On the 19th 
of April, 1782, the Estates General recognized 
Adams as minister from the United States of Amer- 
ica. A Dutch minister was appointed for the 
United States. The first to hold this dignified office 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR 285 

was Pieter Johan van Berckel, brother of the Pen- 
sionaris of Amsterdam. 

The ill-fated commercial treaty, the discovery 
of which had caused so much excitement and had 
been the immediate occasion of the English war, 
was officially ratified in October of 1782. Adams 
finally secured his loan of five million guilders, and 
left the Republic to proceed to Versailles as one 
of the American delegates for the negotiations of 
peace then going on between England and the 
colonies. 

As for the commercial treaty, it did not in any 
way have the results which had been hoped for. 
The expectation that America would cease to 
trade with her former enemies, and would give pre- 
ference to those nations of Europe who had sup- 
ported her, proved to be wrong. The commerce 
between America and England went on after 
the war as it had gone on for centuries before. 
Amsterdam's money market continued to have 
great attraction for the Americans. But when the 
Dutch capitalists discovered that the new common- 
wealth possessed very curious notions about their 
obligations towards their creditors, they became 
very reluctant about granting new loans, and pre- 
ferred to invest their money in such countries as did 
not continually threaten to annul their just debts. 

On the 3d of September, 1783, peace between 
the United States and England was concluded. 
The Republic now enjoyed that honor which some 



286 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of the extreme patriots had once wished for her. 
She was allowed to fight England all alone. As a 
matter of fact, she was allowed to pay for costs 
all around. Before she finally concluded peace 
with England, on the 20th of May, 1784, she had 
become involved in new troubles with her neighbor 
Joseph 11. 

In the fall of 1783, without any previous declara- 
tion of war, Austrian troops attacked and captured 
the Dutch fortifications at the mouth of the Scheldt 
and sent the Dutch troops home. An official protest 
on the part of the Estates General had no result, 
and Joseph prepared to open the Scheldt for gen- 
eral navigation. In the same month in which the 
Republic signed her peace with England, Joseph 
presented the Republic with a long list containing 
his wishes. It was discovered that the Austrian 
Emperor, who lived in full peace with the Republic, 
made far greater demands than the victorious Eng- 
lish had done. Not only did he desire what prac- 
tically amounted to opening the Scheldt, but he 
also wanted the town of Maastricht, a piece of Lim- 
burg, and a couple of millions of guilders. The only 
ground upon which most of these demands were 
based was the fact that Austria possessed an army 
with which she could enforce them and that the 
Republic was absolutely defenseless. Joseph was 
an idealist, but an idealist with a practical turn of 
mind. 

In this precarious position the Republic was com- 



THE LAST ENGLISH WAR £87 

pelled to look for help elsewhere. While Joseph was 
collecting forty thousand Austrian soldiers on the 
Dutch frontier, the Republic agreed to accept such 
terms as France offered in return for her friend- 
ship and good will. For the consideration of nine 
million guilders in cash, of which France pro- 
mised to pay half, Joseph allowed himself to be 
bribed into giving up his many and varied claims. 

A year after the conclusion of peace with Eng- 
land, the Republic signed the offensive and defens- 
ive treaty which bound her to France. In case of 
war she was bound to support France with a fleet of 
nine ships and six thousand men. France was to 
perform the same service with eighteen ships and 
eighteen thousand men. 

The Regents and the democrats at last obtained 
what they had so ardently wished, that for which 
they had so energetically worked. The Stadholder, 
and such of his party as had through tradition 
supported England, had suffered a severe defeat. 
The policy of friendship with England, continued 
for almost two centuries, was now definitely given 
up. Henceforth the Republic, by its own free will, 
would share the destinies of the mighty French 
nation. She paid for this mistake with complete 
political annihilation, and with almost a century of 
stagnation, — a stagnation which only during the 
last generation has given way to a revival of the 
old intellectual and commercial activity. 



CHAPTER Vm 

THE PATRIOTS 

In the previous pages we have briefly described the 
foreign affairs of the RepubHc during the years 
1775 to 1784, and have mentioned such external 
events as led directly to the final destruction of her 
commerce and to the end of her pretensions to be 
counted as a political power of importance. We 
have also tried to make clear that from then on 
the only feeling which she inspired in her fellow 
nations was one of enthusiasm for her great and 
undiminished capacity as a money-lender. The 
essential facts in the rest of our history are very 
simple. 

1. The Stadholder was incompetent. 
; 2. During the years of the English war the Re- 
gents and all those who either on theoretical or 
practical grounds were opposed to the Stadholder 
combined into one party, which was called the party 
of the Patriots. 

3. This party of opposition was so successful that 
at the end of the English war the power of the 
Stadholder, in the principal provinces at least, was 
virtually broken. 

4. The Stadholder was obliged to leave the Hague 
and retire to one of the less important country 
provinces. 



THE PATRIOTS 289 

5. No sooner had he left than the heterogeneous 
parts of the Patriotic party flew at one another's 
throats on account of the division of the spoils. 

6. They were therefore unable to resist the King 
of Prussia, whose armies by brute force reestab- 
lished His Majesty's brother-in-law in all his former 
rights and prerogatives as hereditary stadholder. 

7. This restoration was followed by the inevit- 
able reaction. 

8. The extreme left wing of the Patriotic party 
had by this time become so radical that the extreme 
right wing was forced to make common cause with 
the Stadholder. 

9. Since the Stadholder had been willing to ac- 
cept salvation from the hands of a foreign power, 
the Patriotic party felt no compunction about doing 
the same thing. 

10. The Restoration, brought about by the Prus- 
sians, was followed by a Revolution, brought about 
by the French. 

The facts are well known and their sequence is 
very simple. Our task is to relate what inspired 
these events and under what circumstances they 
took place. We must admit that this is no easy 
matter. Most of the participants in the events be- 
tween 1780 and 1795 left no memoirs. They lived 
to see the evil days which befell their country as a 
result of their own lack of political sagacity, and 
they were not desirous that posterity should know 
exactly how they had brought about the ruin of 



290 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

their fatherland. Their correspondence was either 
lost or was purposely destroyed. A few collections 
of letters exist. They have been excellently edited 
by the Dutch historical societies, but they do not 
tell us what we most wish to know. 

There remain to us the contemporary news- 
papers and pamphlets. These two streams of in- 
formation flow abundantly, but they are so far from 
pure and so polluted by strong feelings of partisan- 
ship that we have to distill and pasteurize their 
waters many times before we can derive any benefit 
from them. 

William V lived in the Hague, and he lived well. 
The House of Orange had prospered since the days 
when the first stadholder took up his residence in 
Delft. The great William the Silent had camped 
out in the barren rooms of a confiscated cloister, 
and, heavily in debt, had often not known where to 
get the common supplies of the day. William V 
lived in royal style in the comfortable quarters of 
the Binnenhof in the Hague, and had too much to 
eat. 

The House of Orange has always been singularly 
devoid of constructive qualities. Neither in state- 
craft nor in architecture have they ever erected 
anything new or lasting. Their labor on the internal 
politics of the RepubHc consisted of nothing but 
patchwork. They patched up such laws as they 
needed for their own interests at a particular mo- 
ment, but they never undertook to reshape the 



THE PATRIOTS 291 

complicated and useless macliinery of the Repub- 
lic's government into a satisfactory form. 

Neither did they ever feel any interest for build- 
ings of a material sort — for houses made of brick 
and mortar. We are not aware that they ever con- 
structed a single new palace or edifice of any sort. 
They preferred to occupy houses already existing 
and to patch them up until they were suitable for 
men of their high position. 

The residence of William V in the Hague is a 
typical example. It was a collection of buildings of 
different styles and different periods. Small rooms 
had been made by putting partitions into large ones, 
and large rooms had been made by knocking down 
intervening walls. It was furnished after the style 
of the day. William shared the general lack of 
taste of his House, and kept whatever things of 
value he had in a separate museum. It is curious 
to reflect that at no point of their history did the 
Princes of Orange come into contact with that 
vast army of artists whose names stand to the out- 
sider for the highest fame which our small country 
has ever reached. 

Such works of art as the stadholders needed to 
furnish their palaces they ordered from abroad. 
Rembrandt knew little about the Stadholder under 
whom he lived the better part of his long life, except 
that he experienced great diflSculty in getting the 
money which His Highness owed him. Such pic- 
tures as had at one time or the other come into 



292 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

possession of the stadholders were sold wholesale 
by their descendants in the nineteenth century. 

Besides a residence in the Hague, William V pos- 
sessed several houses in capitals of the different 
provinces, notably in Nymegen, a town where his 
influence remained strong until the end of the 
Republic. He also maintained a number of sum- 
mer residences. Of those the best known was the 
*'Loo," situated in the Province of Gelderland. It 
had first come to fame in the days of William III, 
who had changed it from a simple hunting lodge 
into an inhabitable palace. In Leeuwarden the 
Prince owned the old palace of the stadholders. 

The Stadholder usually lived in the Hague. The 
other provinces he visited only when his presence 
was absolutely necessary on account of some matter 
of internal government. The Hague was a pleas- 
ant little town, and before the Patriotic troubles 
began, William had been quite comfortable there. 
If he wanted to escape the noise of the city, never 
very great, he could drive out to the House in the 
Woods which belonged to him, and there completely 
separate himself from the outside world. 

William, however, was no recluse. He liked to see 
people around him, but he liked to see them in 
his own way. William the Silent had been waited 
on by the soldiers of his guard, who at the same 
time performed the services of butlers and waiters. 
William V had a complete court. From the upper 
and the lower grooms of the chamber down to the 



THE PATRIOTS 293 

upper and lower cooks, all the grades of officialdom 
pertaining to a well-established court were repre- 
sented. The lower officials were mostly foreigners. 
The higher ones were Hollanders, and belonged 
either to the old aristocracy or to such families as 
through long habit were considered worthy of being 
received at court. It is useless to give their names, 
as not one of them ever played any role in our 
history. They were ornamental but vapid. The 
Prince and his court rolled around each other like 
peas in a box. Of what happened outside of their 
little box, they knew nothing. 

Social life as it exists in Anglo-Saxon countries 
has never been known in the Dutch Republic. In 
the Hague the foreign ambassadors kept up some 
sort of society, but the Hollanders took little part 
in it. Small talk did not come easy to their heavy 
minds. The court of the Stadholder was never a 
centre of gayety such as were the courts of the 
rulers in other countries. A few official balls and 
parties formed all the entertainment of the year. 
The people who were invited to those functions in- 
variably belonged to the ultra-conservative, ultra- 
respectable, ultra-dull class of society. 

Of the other layers of the extremely complex 
Dutch social world, not to speak of the men of com- 
merce, the court of the Stadholder saw nothing. It 
was supposed that these people would not know 
how to eat with forks and would not possess dress 
clothes. The immediate surroundings of the Prince 



294 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

were such that when the Baroness von Danckel- 
mann, the old Prussian governess who had been 
sent to Holland by King Frederic to look after 
the interests of the Princess, once met a terribly 
dull individual wandering forlornly in the rooms of 
the Loo, she said to her companion, "Look at that 
man. He must be one of our friends." 

The Stadholder was a very busy man. He had a 
number of secretaries to help him with his mail and 
his dispatches, but, as we have mentioned before, 
he loved to attend to all sorts of matters himself 
and was kept occupied many hours of the day 
with perfectly futile labors. 

At noon, before dinner, he used to go out to 
inspect his hfe guard. William I had been so 
badly guarded that it was found an easy matter to 
murder him in his own house. William V, whom no 
earthly peril threatened, maintained a life guard, 
like every other well-conducted sovereign, and was 
greatly proud of it. He dearly loved to fuss about 
details in his men's uniforms — to change a button 
here and a cockade there. 

The daily inspection of the life guard was one 
of the sights of the Hague, and collected all the 
distinguished strangers and the Orangist rabble of 
the Residence. After the inspection came dinner, 
which was a dull affair. A few persons of distinction, 
a visiting political delegation, or the clergyman who 
had preached that day were usually present. The 
Prince ate much and regularly fell asleep after his 



THE PATRIOTS 295 

meal. The rest of the day was spent with' more 
work or a trip to the woods. In the evening people 
bored themselves at home. 

There was a French opera in the Hague, but it 
was of inferior quality. Of music there was very 
little except an occasional performance by some 
foreign talent. A theatre where Dutch plays were 
given did not exist in the Hague. Not only had the 
stage always suffered from the continual attacks 
of the established church, but during this part of 
the eighteenth century the Dutch language was 
no longer considered fashionable in educated cir- 
cles and people of quality never spoke it except with 
the servants. In polite society they spoke French. 
The governor of their children they addressed in 
German. 

When the Prince was in one of the other pro- 
vinces things went on very much the same. In 
every province there were a few families whom it 
was customary to invite to dinner, the heads of 
which usually received some honorary position at 
the court of the Prince. But here again the Stad- 
holder never met anybody outside of his little 
circle, and was never in a position to learn the views 
of the men who made up the average workaday 
world. 

The Princess enjoyed the respect of all those who 
knew her, but she did not possess a personality 
which inspired affection. She tried her best to 
gather round her husband men of some force and 



296 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

character, but she never seemed able to attract the 
right ones. A certain haughtiness and stiffness in 
deahng with all who did not belong to her own 
small circle frightened away many useful people. 
In general, all who did not belong to their own 
clique were treated by the Stadholder's court with 
such arrogance that they preferred to stay at home 
rather than submit to gratuitous insult. 

It is a sad fact in this sad history that there was 
not a single man among those immediately sur- 
rounding the Stadholder who by his talents or his 
character or his energy rose above mediocrity. The 
family of Bentinck, since the days of William III 
high in the favor of the House of Orange, tried 
to continue its role as close advisers of His High- 
ness. Old Bentinck van Roon, who had offered his 
services to William IV and the Princess Anna, had 
received little gratitude for his trouble. He was 
dead now, and his grandson William Frederic 
Gustavus was trying to maintain his position as 
head of the Orangist party. But as the young man 
was terribly in debt, was of a very unbalanced and 
impetuous character, and possessed pronounced 
feudal notions about everything connected with 
politics, he was absolutely unfit for the r61e which 
he was called upon to play. 

Another candidate for the leadership of the Stad- 
holder's party was van Bleiswyk, the Raadpen- 
sionaris of Holland. The old gentleman, however, 
had so often made himself guilty of breaches of good 



THE PATRIOTS 297 

faith, and had tried so hard to stay friends with 
everybody, that he was distrusted by all and useless 
as a leader. 

When the civic troubles were at their worst, one 
of the younger leaders of the Patriotic party, a cer- 
tain Pieter Paulus, appeared for a moment in the 
councils of the Princess and promised to play the 
r61e which a few years later Mirabeau might have 
played during the French Revolution. He was a 
man of more than ordinary ability, who saw that the 
course his party was then following was leading to 
disaster. He was for a time willing to try to bridge 
over the difficulties which separated the Stad- 
holder from the Patriots. But nothing came of his 
negotiations with the Orangist party, and the Prus- 
sian restoration took place and spoiled all further 
plans. 

So much for the leaders. Now let us see who were 
still adherents of the Prince and of the system which 
made him the first power in the land. As we have 
just said, there were in every province a number 
of noble families who through tradition and habit 
were partisans of the Princes of Orange. In the 
second place, there was the army and the navy. 
Officers and men had little to expect from the 
Regents, who hated them as a costly and unproduc- 
tive institution. Their interest lay with the Prince, 
the only man who was likely to need them, and 
who therefore was willing to treat them well. But 
both the army and the navy were in such disreput- 



298 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

able condition that their support at that moment 
meant next to nothing. 

In the third place, we must mention the estab- 
lished clergy. Surrounded on all sides by other de- 
nominations who were excluded from the benefits 
which went to the established church, the clergy 
had always felt its strength to be in a close union 
with the Stadholder, the only power in the Republic 
who could support them against their enemies. In 
return for this support they obliged the stadholders 
by preaching among their flocks the well-known 
gospel of the obligations of the servant towards his 
master and of the duties of subjects to obey those 
whom it had pleased God to set up over them. 
When the days of evil came, they had at least the 
courage to stick to the party of the Prince. Of the 
very few people who defended the Stadholder at a 
time when such conduct was accompanied by risk 
to their persons and much annoyance to their fam- 
ilies, many were clergymen. 

The great strength of the Stadholder, however, 
lay in the lower classes of society. The masses, the 
men of the people, the common men, were usually 
too much occupied with the difiicult immediate 
problem of how to make both ends meet to bother 
themselves with politics. Nobody cared about them 
and they did not mind that nobody cared. They no 
more expected a share in the government of their 
nation than at present the domestic cows in our 
pastures expect to be represented in the country's 



.THE PATRIOTS ^ 299 

parliament. They became conscious of the form 
of government under which they Hved only when 
through a mistake of the ruling party their source 
of income momentarily ceased to flow. Upon such 
occasions they used to rise up in their might, usu- 
ally influenced by a liberal amount of brandy sup- 
plied by those who wished to use them for their 
own ends, and used to run to the town hall and 
demand that a change in policy be made. Then 
having exercised sufiicient pressure upon the govern- 
ment to bring about the desired change, and pro- 
sperity having once more returned, they were quite 
willing to resume their humble occupations and 
leave the difficult problem of government to their 
betters. Their immediate masters were the Re- 
gents. These were very strict masters and were 
never popular with their subjects. 

Here is where the advantage of the Prince came 
in. He was to most people a sort of mythical per- 
son who lived far away in the Hague. His power 
they considered to be immense, since upon occa- 
sions he could even dismiss the almighty Regents. 
Since he was the one person who never did harm to 
common man and often benefited him, the masses 
felt instinctively that it was to their interest to 
support him. This they did until the end with great 
faithfulness. For their lack of political wisdom 
they made up by an excess of zeal. But left with- 
out guidance by William, their efforts on his behalf 
never achieved any success. And here endeth the 



300 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

enumeration of those upon whom the Stadholder 
could count as his supporters: the army, the navy, 
the established clergy, and the mob were his party. 

We must now consider the different elements of 
which the opposition, the Patriotic party, was com- 
posed. Here our task becomes vastly more difficult. 

We must at once rid ourselves of any modern 
ideas about a party system. In former times, with 
stadholder and regents opposing each other, the 
country had been vaguely divided into two parties, 
one of which was in and the other of which was 
trying to get in. But neither party represented the 
people at large. During the latter part of the eight- 
eenth century, however, the fight against the Stad- 
holder was no longer made exclusively by those who 
wanted to possess for themselves what the Stad- 
holder happened to have, but by numbers of par- 
ties and small groups of parties and individuals, all 
of whom had their own particular reason for wish- 
ing to have a hand in the government under which 
they lived. 

In every separate province, in every different 
city, and even in some of the larger villages, we shall 
find individuals and small groups of individuals who 
are making opposition to the Stadholder at first and 
to the Regents later, inspired by the most varied of 
motives. 

At the head of all this opposition, easily first by 
reason of her economic strength, stood the town 
of Amsterdam. Most of the other towns in Hoi- 




VIOLENT ENCOUNTER BETWEEN PATRIOTIC MlllTlA 




ND CITIZENS IN ROTTERDAM ON APRIL^ 3,1784 



THE PATRIOTS 301 

land, especially those in the northern part of the 
province, were in so many ways dependent upon 
Amsterdam that they could not well afford to op- 
pose her in the meetings of the provincial estates. 
It was Amsterdam which had most of all been op- 
posed to the traditional policy of friendship with 
England, which had been at the head of those who 
agitated for an alliance with France. It was Am- 
sterdam which, on her own account, had entered 
upon negotiations with America before the Repub- 
lic had recognized the independence of the United 
States. 

In all matters of internal politics the government 
of the town acted with all the overbearing haughti- 
ness of persons who are accustomed to buy their 
way in the world. In many ways the town was far 
ahead of the rest of the country. It felt annoyed 
because the other parts of the Republic did not 
keep up the pace, and without the slightest feeling 
for the common fatherland it simply went ahead 
and did not bother about its neighbors. If the 
others did not approve of Amsterdam's actions, so 
much the worse for the others. In the Estates of 
Holland, as well as in the Estates General, Amster- 
dam behaved in all matters as if it knew no other 
law than her own interests. Her spokesman was the 
Pensionaris of the town, van Berckel, a man who 
having made a failure of the law had made a suc- 
cess of marriage, and, owing to the large funds 
which his wife had put at his disposal and the pro- 



302 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC > 

tection of one of Amsterdam's mayors, had made 
an excellent career. 

Towards the Stadholder the conduct of Am- 
sterdam was often most insulting. In their direct 
dealings with the Prince, the Amsterdam Regents 
regularly used a tone which was overbearing and 
insolent. 

The middle classes of Amsterdam were only grad- 
ually drawn into the opposition. They, like their 
fellow citizens elsewhere, had not the slightest influ- 
ence upon the government under which they lived, 
which levied their taxes. They paid their money 
and obeyed the "lordships" who sat in the town 
hall. With the increasing interest in political life 
the middle classes began to form debating societies, 
and in their clubs discussed the many reasons for 
their discontent. Since the Stadholder showed no 
desire to champion their cause, they were quite 
naturally driven into the opposition, and there wel- 
comed by the Regents, who were grateful for any 
allies in their war upon the Prince. 

The fourth estate of Amsterdam, like the masses 
everywhere, was unreasonably pro-Stadholder. 
Time and again had they risen up from among their 
slums to defend their Prince, and in this way had 
incurred the displeasure of their lordships, who 
were severe masters and quick to decide who should 
swing outside of the windows of the municipal 
weighing house and who should be merely flogged. 

During the days of the Patriotic troubles these 



THE PATRIOTS 303 

poor people remained faithful to the Prince. Hav- 
ing been first ordered about by the Regents, they 
were then for some time bullied by the Patriotic 
militia; and when the day of the restoration of the 
Stadholder came, they were allowed to knock in the 
windows of all those who had lorded it over them. 
Finally, the French Revolution upset the whole 
existing order of things, and the common people 
with all those fine gentlemen above them were put 
into Mr. Bonaparte's uniform and were given a 
chance to prove whether they could stand the 
Spanish or Russian climate better than their for- 
mer masters did. 

In Rotterdam, the second city of the land, condi- 
tions were slightly different. Rotterdam, by its very 
situation and the fact that it contained a numer- 
ous English and Scotch colony, has always been 
closely related to England. The town was not 
powerful enough to prevent the war with England 
and was with all the others drawn into the Patriotic 
movement. But its Regents never acted against the 
Stadholder with the personal bitterness which was 
assumed by their colleagues in Amsterdam. 

Paulus, one of the Patriots who, as we have seen 
before, had endeavored to bring about an under- 
standing between his party and the supporters of 
the Prince, lived in Rotterdam as the director of the 
Admiralty of the Maas. The middle class in Rotter- 
dam was Patriotic. It read its Rousseau and dis- 
cussed its Montesquieu and met in its Patriotic 



304 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

clubs, and later on drilled and marched with great 
zeal for the glory and defense of civic liberty. The 
lower class was possessed of a most ardent love for 
the House of Orange, and if there was one place in 
the Republic where the Prince was more popular 
than among his own court, it was in the fish-market 
of the good town of Rotterdam. 

The towns of Haarlem and Dordrecht presented 
very much the same sort of conditions. The top and 
the middle class were opposed to the Stadholder, the 
lower one was his friend. The smaller cities simply 
took their orders from the larger ones, and, except 
Delft, which had for a long time been the resi- 
dence of the stadholders, they all united in an ever- 
increasing spirit of opposition to everything good 
or bad which came from the side of the Stadholder. 
In the Province of Zeeland, the Prince as Marquis 
of Veere and Flushing always had maintained a cer- 
tain influence. Unfortunately William was repre- 
sented in the estates there by a man who was con- 
siderable of a fool. Among the Zeeland Regents, 
however, he was supported by a small but import- 
ant party of able men. Hence the Patriotic middle 
classes in this province did not go hand in hand with 
the Regents. In the estates of the province three of 
the cities remained on the side of the Stadholder, 
and they, together with the representative of the 
Prince, outvoted the three other cities which took 
their orders from Holland and voted the Patriotic 
programme. 



THE PATRIOTS 305 

In the Province of Utrecht the opposition to the 
Stadholder was quite general. In this province the 
capital, the town of Utrecht, was the domineering 
force. Situated in the centre of the country, pro- 
sperous and with an excellent university, the people 
of Utrecht were perhaps a little better informed of 
the affairs of the day and took a more intelligent 
interest in them than their fellow countrymen. 
Since the year 1674, when Utrecht had been evacu- 
ated by the French and had entered the Union 
once more as conquered territory, the town had 
suffered under the infamous *'Reglements" which 
William III, in his desire to establish his own power 
firmly, had forced upon the city and which made 
the Stadholder practically the master of the mu- 
nicipal government. Hence the Stadholder was a 
most unpopular oflBcial with all classes of society. 

The next province, Gelderland, was divided into 
many different parties. Here the Stadholder had 
great influence in the cities, where he had the abso- 
lute right of appointment. In Gelderland, however, 
there was a large class of landed gentry, who were 
independent of the Stadholder and of the Regents 
alike. Under the leadership of the family of van der 
Capellen these men were among the very first to 
adopt the current modern ideas; therefore they 
were of the opposition to the Stadholder, whose 
power in their province they considered to be en- 
tirely too great. They were soon joined by the mid- 
dle class of the cities, who suffered under the bad 



306 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

appointments made by the Stadholder or his 
heutenant. 

Here we must note that only the cities where the 
court of the Stadholder used to reside regularly 
showed any affection for the Prince. Opposition to 
this rich dignitary, whose household ate more sugar 
and bread and used more candles and had more 
horses shod than anybody else, would have re- 
sulted in a direct loss to the pockets of the mer- 
chants of those cities, and we can hardly blame 
them for hooraying when the Prince once more 
returned to reside in their midst. 

A large part of the population of Gelderland had 
remained faithful to the Catholic Church, and these 
people, like all the Protestant dissenters, were op- 
posed to the Stadholder as the one power in the 
Republic which helped their enemies maintain the 
strict discrimination against all those who did not 
belong to the official church. 

In Overysel the opposition to the Stadholder 
came chiefly from the larger cities and from several 
of the nobles. It was in the Estates of Overysel 
that our friend van der Capellen had first distin- 
guished himself with his ardent speeches on behalf 
of the Americans. Through his family he belonged 
in Gelderland, but he had not been able to obtain 
a seat in the estates of that province. He had, there- 
fore, taken a nominal residence in Overysel, and 
after a couple of years had been able to secure a 
seat in the estates of that province. 



THE PATRIOTS 307 

The province of Drenthe did not count. It was 
sparsely populated, very poor, and, though al- 
lowed to pay its share of the expenses of the Re- 
public, it was never represented in the Estates 
General. 

In Groningen the century-old quarrel between 
the country and the town was continued as before. 
The town, the centre of which was a liberal uni- 
versity with a large number of liberal professors, was 
Patriotic; the country districts were Orangist. The 
rustic element was, however, outvoted by the city 
people; and when William mixed himself in a uni- 
versity quarrel about the lack of orthodoxy of one 
of the Groningen professors and supported the 
dominies who were attacking the liberal teacher, 
his last prestige in the city disappeared. 

Friesland was essentially an agricultural country. 
Its larger farmers were independent men with a 
share in the government, and with few exceptions 
they did not take kindly to the new notions of the 
Patriots. The Patriotic party, however, was well 
represented in the cities, and counted in its ranks 
some very capable and very energetic young men, 
who, following in general lines the democratic doc- 
trines preached by van der Capellen and his friends, 
made violent opposition to the Prince. 

The many Jews residing in the Republic were 
divided into two parties. The Spanish and Portu- 
guese Jewish families were strongly aristocratic and 
on the side of the Prince. The others, in so far as 



308 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

they took any interest in politics, adopted the most 
extreme modern views. 

Now we are well aware that this short description 
is not so clear as we should wish it to be. But the 
problem is strangely complicated. During the years 
of the Patriotic troubles the most heterogeneous 
characters came to the surface of the agitated polit- 
ical sea, played their little role, and disappeared 
again. Respectable citizens, whose only interest 
had hitherto centred around their standing on the 
Exchange, were discovered to be publishing pam- 
phlets written in a language of such violence as 
men expected to hear only in the lowest dives. 

Clergymen, who for years had followed their 
pious calling to the general contentment of their 
devoted flock, suddenly gave up flock, wife, child- 
ren, and reputation, and went about drilling shop 
clerks and barbers' apprentices in order that they 
might forcibly defend their Human Rights against 
a Tyrant's encroachments. 

Regents, whose pride and arrogance had become 
proverbial, were seen hand in glove with members 
of the despised lower classes, and openly received 
men who a year before would not have been al- 
lowed to enter their houses except by the back 
doors. 

All old standards, all former proportions, seem to 
have been temporarily lost sight of. Families con- 
nected with each other by years of the most inti- 
mate friendships suddenly ceased to be on speaking 



THE PATRIOTS 309 

terms. Members of the same family attacked each 
other in the yellow press of their day with a fury 
hardly imaginable in the phlegmatic race to which 
they belonged. 

Those who were the Opposition to-day were the 
Established Government of to-morrow and the 
Reactionaries of the day after. The Defender of 
Human Liberty of one week was the Tyrant who 
attacked Human Freedom the next. And so on, for 
fifteen whole years. For fifteen years the country 
represented a complete topsy-turvydom, of which it 
has never ceased to be ashamed. 

The first part of the programme of the Patriotic 
party had consisted in a combined attack of all the 
discontented elements upon the Prince, as the one 
person responsible for the terrible failure of the 
Dutch fleet in the English war. As we have briefly 
mentioned in the last chapter, this attack, while 
directed against the Prince, had been more espe- 
cially waged against the Duke of Brunswick. The 
Duke, unable to maintain himself against this on- 
slaught from all sides, had been forced to leave the 
court of the Prince and had retired to Bois-le-Duc. 
This was the first great victory of the Opposition, 
and they were inordinately proud of it. 

Under these circumstances it cannot astonish us 
that the Opposition and its leader, the town of 
Amsterdam, were greatly annoyed at a certain piece 
of news which was spread about in March of 1781. 
According to this bit of information a new pam- 



310 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

phlet had just been published which in very severe 
terms attacked Amsterdam for her conduct just 
previous to the outbreak of the war with England. 
The story proved to be true. The pamphlet did 
exist, and was in such great demand that single 
copies of it were immediately traded for their 
weight in silver. Now if the author of this pamphlet 
had been the ordinary little penny-a-liner, Amster- 
dam would not have been greatly agitated by the 
news. But the attack came from no one less than 
the erstwhile "Infant Prodigy" of the University of 
Utrecht, Professor van Goens. 

Rycklof Michiel van Goens belonged by birth to 
the governing class of the town of Utrecht. His 
mother was an Englishwoman, daughter of one of 
the officers of the Scottish brigade in the Hague. 
Her son had been educated half as a Hollander and 
half as an Englishman. By preference van Goens 
was English, and regretted that through his father 
he was bound to a country which lacked all appre- 
ciation of his many remarkable gifts. *^ He spent his 
early youth in the pursuit of all the varied studies 
which were usually reserved for boys of an older 
age, and at seventeen was given a professorship in 
the University of Utrecht. He was hailed as the 
successor of Grotius, who also at the age when other 
boys learn to smoke their first pipes passed his 
leisure hours in writing Latin and Greek poetry. 

At the age of eighteen, van Goens had devel- 
oped into a hopeless neurasthenic and was teaching 



THE PATRIOTS 311 

history, classical antiquities, rhetoric, and Greek 
philology in the university of his native town. For 
ten years he taught men twice his age, and now in 
his twenty-eighth year had grown into an unbear- 
able egotist. He had collected a famous library, had 
edited the works of many classical authors, and 
had received the worship and homage of all those 
who took an interest in literature. Then, by pure 
chance, he got into trouble with the clergy. A few 
years before he had incurred the anger of the ortho- 
dox brethren, on account of his defense of the "vir- 
tues of Socrates." Van Goens, in one of his books, 
had hinted at a possibility of Socrates having en- 
tered Paradise. This sentiment had given offense 
to some obscure theological scribe who, however, 
had been speedily subdued by the clever pen of the 
young Utrecht professor. 

All this had occurred before the feelings of polit- 
ical partisanship had attained such great propor- 
tions in the daily life of all good citizens. With the 
increase of the sentiments of atheism and indiffer- 
ence towards the Church, there had been an in- 
crease in the violence with which the ultra-orthodox 
clergy defended their own principles. There was a 
revival of good, old-fashioned Calvinism, and at the 
head of this movement stood a certain Dominie 
Hofstede, a great friend of the Stadholder. In order 
to make propaganda for his ideas, Hofstede had 
founded a little paper and at the same time he had 
appointed himself Grand Inquisitor of the religious 



Sn FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

feelings of all his fellow citizens. Such as were for 
any reason found to be lax in their beliefs were 
dragged by him into the court of justice of his little 
magazine, were there held up for public disapproval, 
and were punished according to their deserts. Van 
Goens had been on his list of "suspected persons" 
for a long time. As Professor of Greek, van Goens 
had to teach and explain the books of the New Test- 
ament, and their explanation has always been a 
subject of great concern to those opposed to all rad- 
ical criticism. 

Now it so happened that in the year 1776 van 
Goens translated a perfectly harmless booklet of a 
certain German rationalist, called Moses Mendel- 
sohn. Furthermore, it so happened that this trans- 
lation fell into the hands of Dominie Hofstede and 
greatly displeased the reverend gentleman. There 
were in the little pamphlet of only a few pages some 
remarks about Christ and the Gospels which 
smacked of a certain modern frivolity of expression. 
So the dominie sat himself down and wrote an 
article in which he admonished van Goens in a 
most fatherly way never to forget those wise lessons 
which he had received from his venerable parents. 

But that was not all. From the highest pinnacle 
of his own righteousness Hofstede asked whether 
the proper respect for Moses and the prophets 
could be expected from a young man who so greatly 
revered the works of Voltaire, Diderot, and Hume. 
Now any other criticism would have been less 



THE PATRIOTS 313 

objectionable to van Goens than this fatherly 
epistle. He forgot all prudence and allowed himself 
to lose his temper. This is a fatal mistake in all 
disputes with the clergy. Van Goens soon discov- 
ered the truth of this statement. He became in- 
volved in an absurd dispute, and before he was 
thirty years old he had made himself impossible as 
a professor of the university, and had to offer his 
resignation. 

Since he had spent most of his private fortune on 
his famous private library he had to look for some 
sort of occupation. Through the influence of the 
Stadholder, he got an office in the government of 
his native city, a position for which he was not in 
the least fitted and which he neglected from the 
beginning. Gradually he began to take an interest 
in the politics of his province. In all his ideas about 
a well-appointed government, van Goens was a 
strict conservative. The "authorities" meant to 
him everything. The rest of the people were there 
to obey and not to question. 

When the unexpected happened, and the British 
were beaten by the Americans, van Goens, who as 
we have mentioned before considered himself half 
an Englishman, was very angry, and his anger 
directed itself against the first persons whom he 
could connect with the cause of his annoyance. 
Amsterdam's secret negotiations with America had 
just then been discovered, and from that moment 
on Amsterdam meant to van Goens the incarnation 



314 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of all those forces the influence of which he thought 
most pernicious for the weal of the country. 
, As we have also seen before, Amsterdam was not 
punished for her conduct, but emerged from the 
affair into which she had driven the country with a 
nimbus of Patriotic glory. She even went so far as 
to hire a professional writer, a certain Calkoen, to 
compose a defense of her actions. 

This was too much for the excitable ex-professor. 
He set to work and wrote what, among the thou- 
sands of pamphlets of this time, is almost the only 
readable one. He did not intend to inform the vul- 
gar crowd of his sentiments and wrote only for the 
benefit of his equals. In order to keep his literary 
product from being read by the crowd in the street, 
he put the price of it at ten guilders. But the de- 
mand immediately surpassed the supply, and there 
was a sudden boom of the pamphlet which drove 
the price up to quite an unheard-of height. Several 
new editions appeared in quick succession. A 
French translation brought the pamphlet within 
the understanding of the diplomatic corps in the 
Hague. ^^ 

For those lazy readers to whom the three hundred 
and thirty-six pages were too much of an undertak- 
ing, a shorter, abbreviated edition was issued. The 
first edition of the pamphlet is of the year 1781, 
dated March 11. The name of the author is not 
given, but only his picture in vignette. 

About the contents we can be brief. Van Goens 



THE PATRIOTS 315 

first gives a short review of the internal and external 
politics of the Republic, and carefully describes the 
attitude of Amsterdam in connection with all these 
historical events. He comes to the final conclusion 
that at all times and under all circumstances Am- 
sterdam has worked only for her own interests. The 
events leading up to the last English war are briefly 
mentioned. Commodore Jones does not have an 
admirer in Professor van Goens, but is merely a 
"Scotchman who has escaped his own fatherland 
after he has murdered a fellow sailor and then has 
entered the service of the American rebels." Fin- 
ally, the author blames Amsterdam directly for all 
the misery into which the country has been plunged, 
and for the disastrous break with the best friend of 
the Republic, which break, according to him, was 
only brought about by Amsterdam in the hope of 
increasing her own revenues. 

The storm which van Goens called forth by the 
publication of this pamphlet was terrific, and he 
himself was to perish in it. He discovered at once 
that he stood all alone. The friends of the Prince 
did not dare to come to the support of a man who 
was personally very unpopular and who had already 
incurred the displeasure of the clergy. The Stad- 
holder himself, in whose defense the publication 
had been undertaken, was more embarrassed than 
pleased. The Duke of Brunswick, who had his own 
difficulties with Amsterdam, did not advise him to 
encourage van Goens openly. 



316 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

On the other hand, the town of Amsterdam at 
once prepared for the defense. Within three months 
six different pamphlets appeared which defended 
her conduct and attacked the Hbelous accusations 
of van Goens. They also published a good deal of 
information about the personal character and hab- 
its of the former professor, which delighted the read- 
ing public of that day and at the same time spoiled 
van Goen's chance to act as the apostle of a new 
school of righteousness. 

Embittered by this attack and the neglect of the 
Stadholder, van Goens at first showed little desire 
to write an answer. Then, after a period of four 
months, he had a sudden inspiration, and within a 
few hours composed a satire on the conditions in the 
Republic which, like his other publication, stands 
forth from among the mass of rubbish which at that 
time was turned out of the printing-shops.*^ 

In July of the same year, just at the moment 
when the Prince was again being attacked from all 
sides, there appeared a booklet which had as title: 
*' Seven villages in flames through the Imprudence 
of the Sheriff and a Secretary, or History of the 
Doughnuts. A Story of day before yesterday trans- 
lated from the Malayan language by C. P. L. P. 
Printed in the Castle of Batavia." The initials 
C. P. L. P. meant "Constant pour la Patrie," and 
the pamphlet was printed in Utrecht. 

In thirty-two pages van Goens describes the 
complicated history of the "Seven Villages" (the 



THE PATRIOTS 317 

seven provinces) which belong to one "Lord" (the 
Stadholder). One of the villages (Amsterdam) was 
almost as important as all the others together, and 
was therefore feared and respected by the other six. 
Gradually the inhabitants of this big village grew 
insupportably arrogant, and at the same time so 
careless that more than once they almost set their 
own village and the other six on fire. 

The "Lord" of the combined seven was a kind- 
hearted old soul, who lived in peace with all his sub- 
jects except the inhabitants of the "Big Village," 
who hated him as much as they were indifferent to 
the interests of their people in the other villages. 
Unable to counteract this hatred, the "Lord" at 
least tried to defend his other subjects against the 
haughtiness of their neighbors in the "Big Village." 

Now, as he felt certain that some day or other the 
"Big Village" by its thoughtlessness would start a 
conflagration among all his possessions, the "Lord" 
advised the buying of a good fire engine (the fleet) . 
But the inhabitants of the "Big Village" thought 
this was absolutely unnecessary. In case of fire, 
they said, they themselves would see to it that 
nothing happened. They needed no fire engines. 
In this way nothing was done, and as the "Lord" 
did not have the power to enforce his will, no fire 
engine was bought. Of course, in the end a fire 
did occur. The inhabitants of the "Big Village" 
were very proud of their great services towards the 
community. They often pointed with pride to the 



318 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

many times when they had enabled fellow members 
to do a good piece of business. But they forgot to 
mention that upon such occasions they themselves 
had always made the greatest profits. For example, 
when their baker found that he had too large a 
store of flour he would give a great feast. All the 
people of the community would come and eat cakes, 
but in the end they had to pay for those cakes — 
the baker was rid of his superfluous flour and he had 
made a neat little profit into the bargain. In the 
same way one day an oil dealer found that he pos- 
sessed more barrels of oil than he knew what to do 
with and planned to treat all the people with 
doughnuts, fried in oil. It was to be a great feast, 
and everybody was to be happy (this has reference 
to the benefits which were to accrue from the secret 
American treaty). 

Then the unexpected thing happened. The oil 
caught fire (it was rapeseed oil), and before the 
inhabitants of the "Big Village" knew what had 
happened, one half of their village had burned down. 
The old fire engines, which they had neglected for 
years, failed to work, and the fields of the other 
villages caught fire, too. 

The "Lord" of the villages came and wanted to 
know what had happened. But the guilty parties 
excused themselves by saying that they had only 
tried to arrange a little celebration for the benefit 
of all the subjects of His Lordship. Then, quite 
accidentally, a fire had broken out, and it was found 



THE PATRIOTS 319 

that there was no efficient extinguishing material 
to stop the conflagration. *'Who," so the people 
of the "Big Village" asked, "was responsible for 
the fire-fighting apparatus? Who else but His Lord- 
ship?" "And would he please tell them why he 
had neglected the fire department for so many 
years r 

Of course in the end nobody would listen to the 
"Lord," who could deliver positive proof that he 
himself was the one person who had always agi- 
tated for the institution of a better fire depart- 
ment, and everybody blamed the Master for his 
carelessness, while they were deeply grateful to the 
kind people of the "Big Village," who were now 
reaping such ingratitude for their efforts to give 
the whole of the community a "good time." 

Van Goen's witticism was immediately imitated 
by a number of penny-a-liners.^^ His "Seven Vil- 
lages " served as a pattern for a number of allegories 
of a similar nature. His own pamphlet was ridiculed 
in many ways and translated into miserable poetry. 
Soon the rabble in the street sang his story to the 
music of popular airs. And still there came no 
one to support him, and the Stadholder, the kind- 
hearted " Lord " of the many villages, paid no atten- 
tion to the embittered individual who was fighting 
his fight for him. 

On the contrary, van Goens began to be attacked 
in caricature as well as in pamphlet. The art of the 
political cartoon had been highly developed in the 



320 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Republic at an early date, and no event of import- 
ance took place in the eighteenth century of which 
we do not possess some cartoons often from the 
hands of the very best draughtsmen. Like every- 
thing else of the eighteenth century the cartooning 
is of a vastly inferior sort. Every vestige of art 
seems absent from the pictures, and they appear to 
the twentieth-century student just mere vulgarities 
and indecencies. 

Having by this time successfully established him- 
self as the most hated individual in the Repub- 
lic, van Goens decided to go one step further. In 
August of the year 1781 he started a newspaper. 
No one in the Republic had as yet dared to start an 
Orangist paper. The enterprise in this line of work 
had all been on the side of the Opposition. Van 
Goens managed to get together the small capital 
necessary to start his undertaking and began print- 
ing the "Old-Fashioned Dutch Patriot." Among 
its many contemporaries it was the only paper with 
some literary merit. But, alas ! — nobody wanted 
to read it. 

While one of the worst Patriotic papers, the 
"Post of the Lower Rhine," within a very short 
time brought its list of subscribers up to more than 
twenty-four thousand, van Goens had to content 
himself with only seven hundred subscribers, and 
did not make enough to pay for the paper and the 
printing. 

And no wonder. For van Goens not only at- 



THE PATRIOTS 821 

tacked Amsterdam, but also made bitter warfare 
upon the "stupid masses who are incapable of any 
ideas about government, whose opinions on polit- 
ical matters are only ridiculous, and who should 
be content to leave the business of government to 
those who for uncountable centuries have occupied 
themselves with that difficult task." These were 
not exactly sentiments which made a man a popular 
hero in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. 

After a few months, van Goens, whose temper 
had not improved under his many tribulations, got 
into a quarrel with his associate editor and the 
paper was suspended. The news of its decease was 
received with great joy. Mock funerals were ar- 
ranged, and the population was invited to attend 
the solemn obsequies which were to take place at 
the nearest dog-cemetery. 

These explosions of highly vulgar wit incensed 
the professor to such an extent that he actually 
recommenced publishing his paper. But all his 
trouble was of no avail. Gradually he lost even his 
last subscribers, and after a year the " Old-Fashioned 
Dutch Patriot" definitely ceased to appear. 

And here we say farewell to its publisher. With- 
out the encouragement of the Stadholder, who did 
not dare to support him openly, and deserted by the 
members of his own class, who resented his attack 
upon their fellow Regents in Amsterdam, a subject 
of ridicule to the boys in the gutter, van Goens 
could not maintain himself even in his own city. 



322 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

At the age of thirty-six he left his native country 
and as a voluntary exile went to live in Switzerland. 
Only from the English government did van Goens 
receive some recognition of his services. England 
proposed to make him her representative with the 
Swiss cantons. Van Goens, therefore, asked the 
Stadholder to release him from the oath of fidelity 
which he had sworn when he entered the Utrecht 
government. The Stadholder, however, did not 
answer this letter until it was so late that van Goens 
had lost all chance of receiving the position. His 
Highness afterwards regretted that he had not been 
able to answer sooner, but Mr. van Goens's letter 
had been "accidentally mislaid." In 1810, van 
Goens died in Wernigerode, where he had gone to 
live as the pensioner of Prince Christian Frederic of 
Stolberg- Wernigerode. 

The autumn of 1781 was the most disastrous 
time of the war with England. There was a com- 
plete stagnation in business, taxes were high, and 
money was scarce. Everybody was as gloomy as 
the clouded skies which hung above them. No 
progress was being made with the equipment of the 
fleet. The general opinion prevailed that the Prince 
was purposely delaying matters because he was still 
opposed to the policy which had driven his country 
into war with the friendly court of St. James. 

Just in the middle of this period of despondency, 
on the night of the 25th of September, a little 
pamphlet was spread through the streets of the 



THE PATRIOTS 323 

most important cities of the Republic which in its 
violence and passion surpassed everything that had 
so far appeared. ^° It was a little booklet of seventy- 
six pages, and was addressed "To the People of the 
Netherlands." It was dated "Ostend, 3d Septem- 
ber, 1781." The names of the author and the pub- 
lisher were unknown, and remained a secret for 
more than a century. 

This pamphlet soon achieved a fame out of all 
proportion to its real merits. At last somebody had 
put into print what very many people vaguely felt to 
be the truth without being able to give a precise ex- 
pression to their feelings. The author, whoever he 
was, fully expected to be prosecuted for his work. 
At least, so he said in his preface, in which he made 
some disagreeable remarks about the "high au- 
thorities who do not like to hear the truth about 
themselves." It was soon proved that the author 
had been right in his premonitions. 

The estates, however much they disliked the 
Stadholder, could not possibly approve of anony- 
mous articles which some fine morning might be 
found on their own doorsteps, and which might be 
directed against themselves. They therefore de- 
cided to try to put a stop to the zeal of the pam- 
phleteers by offering an enormous reward for the 
discovery of the culprit. The estates of one province 
after the other offered hundreds of ducats for in- 
formation leading to the arrest and conviction of 
the author or publisher. Even the slow-moving 



3U FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Estates General took an interest in the matter, and 
offered a thousand ducats for the discovery of the 
guilty parties. As they supposed that the booklet 
had been the work of a number of people, they 
offered full indemnity to any one of them who 
would betray his fellow conspirators. No less a 
punishment than exile for life and a fine of six thou- 
sand ducats was to be inflicted upon the authors. 
Those who offered the pamphlet for sale ran the risk 
of a similar punishment. After a few weeks the 
mere possession of the pamphlet became a high 
offense. Nevertheless it was read in every home, 
and the copies which fell into the hands of the exe- 
cutioner (to be burned solemnly by him) were very 
few. 

All these draconic laws issued against this poor 
sheet of paper served as such excellent advertise- 
ment that the pamphlet was at once translated into 
a number of foreign languages and appeared alto- 
gether in seven editions. 

No one less than Mirabeau was mentioned as its 
author. The real author, however, was far less 
famous. It was our old friend van der Capellen. He 
had been ably assisted by several people, one of 
whom was soon to achieve remarkable notoriety. 
This was the Rev. Francis Adrian van der Kemp, a 
typical product of this extraordinary time.^^ He 
belonged to an old family of clergymen and was 
born in Kampen, one of the strongholds of Dutch 
orthodoxy. At the age of eighteen he was sent to 



THE PATRIOTS 325 

the University of Groningen, a strong Calvinistic 
centre. Here for the first time he left the narrow 
path of orthodox righteousness. 

There happened to be in Groningen at that time 
a professor of jurisprudence, called van der Marck, 
who since 1758 had been peacefully lecturing on 
his particular subject. In 1771, among other sub- 
jects, he taught his students about the *'Jus 
Naturale" and held discourse on the original and 
general depravity of the human race. His remarks 
shocked some of the clergy of the town of Gronin- 
gen, and they accused him of maintaining unsound 
doctrines. They lodged an official complaint with 
the senate of the university. The senate asked the 
professor what he had to say for himself. The pro- 
fessor defended his views in two pamphlets. The 
clergy and the senate declared that they were not 
satisfied with his answer. Before anybody knew it, 
politics had been dragged into the affair, and the 
right and wrong of the question became a matter of 
dispute for the whole country. Hofstede, the self- 
appointed Grand Inquisitor of all unorthodoxy, the 
same one who afterwards attacked van Goens, had 
used all his influence to induce the Stadholder, who 
was one of the curators of the university, to support 
the clergy. This meant, of course, that all the ene- 
mies of the Stadholder rushed to the succor of the 
professor. The clergy, however, were victorious. 
With the help of the powerful curator, they forced 
van der Marck to resign. As a reward for his many 



326 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

years of faithful service, van der Marck was curtly 
dismissed, was forbidden to partake of the Holy 
Communion, and was almost lynched by the pious 
brethren of the congregation, who whenever they 
visited their tabernacle were violently incited 
against this enemy of their sacred religion. In 
order to escape bodily harm, the ex-professor was 
obliged to leave the country and went to live in 
Germany, until in 1795 the Revolution occurred, 
and he was recalled to his old office. 

This whole episode had taken place while van der 
Kemp was studying at the university, and it had 
disgusted him greatly. Gradually he had drifted 
away from the church of his fathers and had joined 
the Baptists, which of all the Dutch sects had pro- 
duced a proportionally very large number of liberal 
men who had maintained a high degree of culture 
among their clergy. 

In 1776, van der Kemp was appointed minister 
in a small village near Amsterdam. Soon his abili- 
ties were recognized, and he was called to Leyden, 
where there was a prosperous Baptist congregation. 
Here he at once threw himself into active political 
life. A few months after he had accepted his new 
call, the pulpit only served him as a suitable place 
from which to promulgate his political views. He 
preached the rights of the people, and violently 
fulminated against the Rehabeam in the Stad- 
holder's palace in the Hague. 

The noise which he made was so loud and insist- 



THE PATRIOTS 327 

ent that he drew upon himself the attention of 
many of the other rising pohtical Hghts, and met 
with the ordinary fate of being made one of van der 
Capellen's regular correspondents. As he was a 
man of great impetuosity and loved adventure, 
van der Capellen had elected him as the person who 
should do the dangerous work in connection with 
the publication of the famous pamphlet, "To the 
People of the Netherlands," and he was chosen to 
distribute it. The pamphlet itself, in the customary 
superficial way of that day, gave a general account 
of Dutch history from the earliest times, with 
special reference to the role played by the Princes 
of Orange. Van der Capellen began his history at 
the beginning of things, and laid the foundations 
for his country's history among the old Batavians 
(of whom at that time very little was known with 
any exactness). Oh, glorious Batavians, who lived 
like free men in a natural way and governed them- 
selves by the will of all the people convened in popu- 
lar assembly ! In this assembly each man appeared, 
as behooved his sovereign and independent condi- 
tion, *' fully armed." Would their descendants, the 
Patriots, kindly take notice of this fact ? 

Then, by way of Charlemagne, under whom the 
people still maintained part of their old rights 
through their guilds and their militia, the author 
brings us to the time of Charles V. Under his son 
the real misery began. Son Philip tried to destroy 
the last vestige of the people's liberty by his Inqui- 



328 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

sition, and in this way started a revolution. In this 
revolution the people received notable services from 
a certain German prince, William, Count of Nassau, 
who, however, did not help them from purely dis- 
interested motives, but because by so doing he could 
obtain for himself and his house a good position as 
Count of Holland. Pure chance prevented this plan 
from being carried out, for William was murdered. 
His successor as pretender to this high oflBce, Prince 
Maurice, was a terrible tyrant. The country is near 
perdition, when it is saved by Oldenbarneveldt. In 
return for his services Oldenbarneveldt is decap- 
itated. A gratuitous slap at English perfidy follows, 
based upon the unfortunate experiences of the epi- 
sode with Leicester. 

Next comes Frederic Henry, despot and tyrant, 
who succeeds by his intrigues in robbing his cousin 
William Frederic of the stadholdership of Gro- 
ningen and Drenthe. Driven by ambition, he mar- 
ries his son to the daughter of the King of Eng- 
land. This son, William II, who, it is quite true, had 
a short but most turbulent career, is the bugaboo of 
the author. Only the interference of Divine Pro- 
vidence saved the country from this monster before 
worse harm had been done. At this point, a propos 
of Mr. Oliver Cromwell, is made a little digression 
into the dangers which threaten a country through 
the presence of hired mercenary troops. "Have a 
care," so the author sounds his note of warning, 
"that the command over your troops remain 



THE PATRIOTS 329 

within your own hands. The country, the whole 
community, belongs to the whole people and not to 
a single prince and his few partisans." 

It is interesting to note the author's conception 
of the theory of government. According to him, a 
state is a stock company, in no way different from 
some East India Trading Company. In their own 
interest the stockholders have appointed a pre- 
sident and a board of directors. All these officials, 
however, are there solely for the benefit of the 
stockholders, and not vice versa. 

After William II, we come to the time of de Witt, 
and read an apotheosis of the time of this great 
statesman. Intrigues of the House of Orange and 
discontent of the people because the Regents have 
become too powerful bring about, the appointment 
of WiUiam III. 

With France, which had been our best friend and 
had helped us in our struggle for independence, and 
had been betrayed by us when in 1648 we concluded 
a separate peace with Spain, — with this good and 
noble France, the Republic now begins a war. The 
history of the war is reviewed, and people are re- 
minded how when the war was over the govern- 
ment in the provinces which the French had just 
evacuated was usurped by William III. When this 
Prince died, the country was in the greatest misery. 

Here we have a short intermission while our 
attention is directed towards the country across 
the Atlantic. Only in the independent thirteen 



330 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

states of the United States and in a few cantons 
of Switzerland can real virtue flourish. In those 
countries each member of the community who 
wishes to occupy a high office can do so only upon 
the condition that he will first gain the good will of 
his neighbors and his fellow citizens by his contin- 
ued kindness and his thoughtfulness, and after he 
has shown by his acts that he desires to increase the 
prosperity of the country and defend its liberty. In 
the Dutch Republic, however, things are done along 
very different lines. In order to get ahead, you 
must first of all curry favor with the Stadholder, 
and when by flattering this official you have made 
yourself agreeable to him, you can be sure of a 
splendid career. 

The historical review is resumed with a short ac- 
count of the reign of William IV. Among the many 
complaints which the author makes against this 
prince, he gives prominence to the statement that 
William suppressed the customary poaching on his 
private grounds in order to prevent people from 
becoming acquainted with the use of firearms. The 
widow of William IV was an English princess, and 
that fact suffices to prove to us that she was at 
heart an enemy of her adopted country. 

When it finally pleased the Lord to deliver the 
country from this Jezebel, the Republic falls into the 
hands of the Duke of Brunswick, who was hired to 
look after the interests of the House of Orange, 
but not after those of the country as a whole. The 



THE PATRIOTS 331 

whole sad period of William's years of government 
is then reviewed. The episode in which the Baron 
van der Capellen acted as the upholder of human 
rights and distinguished himself defending the 
cause of the Americans is given due prominence. 

Finally, the pamphlet ends with a general apo- 
theosis, in which William V is invited to appear 
before the throne of God and there defend himself 
against a series of accusations which alone occupy 
six whole pages. After which the scenery is once 
more removed from heaven to earth, and the hon- 
ored public is respectfully but most earnestly in- 
vited to arm itself, to elect from its midst persons 
who, as extraordinary delegates to the Estates, will 
help them to save the country from the terrible 
predicament in which it finds itself solely through 
the culpable negligence of the Stadholder. 

This booklet, with its mixture of fact and fancy 
and its unreasoning attack upon everything con- 
nected with the House of Orange, unfortunately 
became a sort of first primer of the philosophy of 
government to many people who were trying to 
understand the political agitation going on around 
them. Many derived their only notions about a 
system of popular representation and about a civic 
militia from this crude little volume. It seems no 
wonder that the whole reform movement of that 
day ended in an awful bungle, when we consider in 
what way public opinion was enlightened and from 
what sources the people learned their first lessons 



332 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

about the new theories of government which were 
then being discussed all over Europe. 

The propaganda for the new doctrines now also 
entered a field in which it had no business at all. It 
was dragged into the Church. The pulpit as a place 
from which to spread political wisdom has rarely 
been a success. In the Republic, where Church and 
State were tied firmly together, the clergy from 
time immemorial had used their sermons to favor 
their congregations with their opinions upon the 
affairs of the day. The many days of prayer or 
thanksgiving which were ordered upon all con- 
ceivable occasions offered the clergy an excellent 
chance either to upbraid or praise their flocks and 
to comment upon the daily affairs of the country. 
In these days of great excitement the church be- 
came a place where public questions were vigor- 
ously debated and public sentiment was stirred up 
by the very persons who should have tried to calm 
the excited feelings of the souls within their care. 

Van der Kemp made himself famous for the 
ardor with which he preached his political convic- 
tions. All sorts of conceivable texts served to prove 
the wickedness of the existing form of government. 
The One Hundred and Ninth Psalm was the favorite 
hymn. The story in I Samuel viii of the terrible 
time the Hebrews experienced, when Jehovah 
granted their desire and furnished them with a 
king, was made applicable to the Republic and its 
tyrannical stadholder. 



THE PATRIOTS 333 

As yet nobody dared to touch the fundamental 
truth of the Holy Scriptures, but the congregation 
was also admonished to supplement its pious med- 
itations by a perusal of the works of Locke and 
Hume. In this way they would not only become 
better Christians, but they would also learn to be 
more conscious of their rights and would know how 
to defend them if ever occasion demanded. 

But pamphlets and sermons and coffee-house 
debates did not satisfy the desire of the people to 
discuss the affairs of the day. They demanded 
more immediate information, and got it in a series 
of newspapers, which like the proverbial mush- 
rooms sprang from the soil in one night and dis- 
appeared in another. The general disorganization 
caused by the war had brought about a weakening 
in the strict supervision of the press. In times of 
peace their Lordships who resided at the town hall 
kept strict watch that no undesirable news item 
should appear in the few papers which were being 
printed within their walls. Exorbitant fines and a 
constant threat of exile kept the editors and printers 
within bounds. But now, when the country was 
blockaded and deprived of its ordinary sources of 
income, while taxes were unusually high and were 
being levied on every necessity of life, now that the 
whole country was in a turmoil and everybody was 
talking and nobody listening, it was very difficult to 
enforce the former strict laws about the printing of 
objectionable news items. Under these favorable 



334 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

circumstances the newspapers were beginning to 
discuss the affairs of the day in "editorials." 

Formerly the paper had printed a miscellane- 
ous collection of information, without much order 
and without any commentary. The journalist was 
earnestly requested not to benefit his readers with 
his own personal opinion. But since everybody had 
become interested in politics, the editor was al- 
lowed to throw light upon some specially important 
subject and to guide the first steps of his readers 
upon the slippery road of politics. 

In other days the Dutch newspapers had been 
very welcome abroad, on account of their excellent 
system of news-gathering and their speed in hand- 
ling commercial and shipping items, and the new 
invention of the editorial was by no means popular 
beyond the confines of the Republic. For the ed- 
itors did not hesitate to express their opinions about 
foreign potentates quite as freely as they did about 
the authorities at home. The result was that the 
Estates General were frequently presented with a 
number of newspaper clippings, cut from one of the 
Patriotic papers and accompanied by the indignant 
complaints of some foreign ambassador or minister, 
who asked that immediate punishment be inflicted 
upon the offending editor. 

Punishing newspapers has '^always been an un- 
grateful task for all governments, and the Estates 
General hesitated a long time before they took any 
notice of requests, either foreign or domestic, that 



THE PATRIOTS 335 

they bridle the journalistic zeal of some of their 
fellow subjects. In 1782, however, it came to a dis- 
tinct clash between the Dutch authorities and one 
of the papers. 

The most widely circulated paper on the side of 
the Patriots was the "Post of the Lower Rhine." 
It had begun to be published at the beginning of 
the war with England and had soon outclassed all 
its competitors in popularity. It was printed in 
Utrecht and its editor was a certain 't Hoen. At 
one period of his career this young man had been a 
student, but he had given up the university to fol- 
low the literary profession. He specialized on books 
for children, and in this mild profession he achieved 
some small fame. After a good many adventures he 
had at the age of thirty-six become the editor of the 
"Post of the Lower Rhine," published by a book- 
seller named Paddenberg. 

Mr. 't Hoen had a number of assistants. Of those 
the best known was a very young man with the 
rather extraordinary name of Quint Ondaatje.^^ 
He was the son of pious parents and the descend- 
ant of innumerable generations of ministers of the 
Gospel in the Island of Ceylon (then a Dutch 
possession) . His presence in Utrecht was explained 
by the fact that he, too, had been destined to enter 
the ministry and had been sent to Utrecht to study 
theology. Being possessed of strong enthusiasm 
for all those things which did not pertain to his 
special study, he had speedily drifted into politics, 



336 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

and was now enjoying that enviable position which 
young men of good family enjoy in our own day 
when they take to the stump on behalf of socialism. 

A little shouting would go a great way in those 
days, and Ondaatje, at an age when most young 
men get stage fright if they have to speak in meet- 
ings of their local athletic clubs, enjoyed great pop- 
ularity as a political orator. 

Besides this noisy youth, Mr. 't Hoen was helped 
in his journalistic labors by a score of very ponder- 
ous and dignified gentlemen who were quite willing 
to supply him with information derogatory to the 
character of the Stadholder, provided their names 
should not be used. These were the Regents of 
Amsterdam and several other cities who provided 
the ammunition with which the *'Post of the Lower 
Rhine" bombarded His Highness. The smallest 
and most futile question in a village of which 
nobody had ever heard the name was considered 
worthy of front-page notoriety, provided the Prince 
of Orange could be blamed for something either 
one way or the other. The appointment of a mu- 
nicipal dry nurse somewhere in the backwoods was 
considered news, if that useful functionary should 
happen to be known as a friend of the House of 
Orange and if her defeated rival for the honorable 
position was an adherent of the Patriots. 

The "Post of the Lower Rhine" had already dis- 
covered the fundamental truth that the majority 
of the public, even the most respectable majority, 



THE PATRIOTS 337 

dearly loves to read a scandal, and it was making 
the most of this knowledge. In a very entertaining 
and gossipy way it dished up all sorts of absurd 
stories about the Stadholder, and by so doing 
pleased its patrons and increased its own popular- 
ity. This went on gayly for about a year, when 
things became so bad that the authorities at the 
Hague considered it necessary to take steps to put 
an end to the infamous sheet. In the spring of 1782, 
the Stadholder sent a formal note of protest to the 
town of Utrecht, asking the very high and very 
noble members of the council how they could allow 
within their gates the publication of a sheet which 
week after week printed the most infamous articles 
about the Prince, his family, and his friends. 

The very high and very noble members of the 
council answered that they were not familiar with 
the news printed in this particular paper, and that 
up to that moment they had heard no complaints 
about its printing any stories which did harm to the 
true interests of the country. They were willing, 
however, to consider the matter, and they asked 
Mr. Paddenberg to pay them a visit at the town 
hall to tell them all about his paper. 

Mr.' Paddenberg came, and said that he was not 
aware of ever having printed anything opposed to 
the best interests of the Republic. He also hinted 
that if he were not allowed to publish his paper 
within the walls of Utrecht, he would pack up his 
business and would move to another town, which 



338 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

would then derive the profits which now came to 
Utrecht. 

When the Stadholder was informed of these pro- 
ceedings, he was highly indignant. Since his energy 
never backed up his anger, however, he merely is- 
sued a statement saying that he would not com- 
mence a judicial action if the publisher promised to 
leave him and his family out of further discussions. 

The publisher regretted that his unselfish devo- 
tion to the true interests of his fatherland met with 
so little gratitude. He calmly went on publishing 
scandalous stories about the Prince. The town 
council, afraid of losing a prosperous printing estab- 
lishment, supported their fellow citizen. 

The end of the story was that the Prince actu- 
ally ordered suit to be brought against the offending 
paper, and that the court, after a formal investiga- 
tion of the charges, declared the publisher and the 
editor "not guilty." 

The public loudly applauded the acquittal, the 
paper continued to be conducted as it had been be- 
fore the trial, and the relations between the Stad- 
holder and the town of Utrecht became worse than 
ever.^^ 

The thing which surprises us is that the Prince's 
advisers ever allowed him to commence such an 
action. In case of a sentence, they would receive 
an odious reputation as opponents of the freedom 
of the press. In case of acquittal, they would look 
ridiculous and lose what little prestige they had left. 



THE PATRIOTS 339 

Either the Stadholder should have proceeded in 
such a way that he was sure of a sentence and a fine 
or he should have left the whole thing alone. How 
little good these halfway measures did was shown 
when within a very short time afterwards a num- 
ber of pamphlets surpassing in vileness all that had 
gone before made their anonymous appearance. 
Ere long the murder of tyrants was preached as the 
noblest of virtues, and the wish was openly pro- 
nounced that a second Brutus might make an end 
to the career of this enemy of liberty. Neither 
heavy fines nor the threats of the King of Prussia, 
who disliked to see his immediate family dragged 
through the mud, did the slightest good.^^ 
i It was in this same year that the democratic 
wing of the Patriotic party gained what to them 
was a great victory. Their unofficial leader had had 
for a long time troubles of his own in the estates 
of his province. There existed in Overysel a rem- 
nant of a certain sort of feudal services. Each year 
the tenants on the large estates were obliged to 
render to their landlords certain personal services.^® 
For a trifling sum the tenant could buy himself off, 
and generally the service was not felt as a great 
burden. Van der Capellen, however, had attacked 
the existence of these "corvees" with great vio- 
lence, and the language he had used upon this occa- 
sion, as well as upon the occasion of his speech 
against the King of England, had so thoroughly 
shocked his dignified fellow members that they had 



340 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

suspended him from attending further meetings of 
the estates. He had been trying ever since to get 
reinstated, but the discovery of his letters among 
the papers of Laurens had again delayed his 
chances. 

But since the English war had brought about a 
free-for-all fight against the Stadholder, the family 
and friends of van der Capellen had exerted them- 
selves to the utmost to get the verdict of expulsion 
repealed; and not without success. In November 
of 1782, the Baron was once more admitted to the 
meetings of the estates, and with his popularity 
increased by the halo of martyrdom he resumed at 
once the role of friend of the exponents of all sorts 
of liberty. 

The Opposition, under the pressure of circum- 
stances, had held together well up to that moment. 
But already it was becoming evident that these days 
of peaceful cooperation of all the different parties 
were approaching an end. To make opposition is a 
comparatively simple matter. To do constructive 
work is infinitely more difficult. As an Opposition 
party, the Patriots were succeeding beyond their 
fondest expectations. Only a short attack had suf- 
ficed to show the utter weakness of the Stadholder's 
position. 

The country had been told that the Prince was an 
incapable fool. It had been told this so often that 
it had accepted the statement as Truth No. 1 of its 
Revised Code of Ideas. Now the people turned to 



THE PATRIOTS 341 

the teachers who had been imparting this knowledge 
to them and said, *' Show us how you can do things 
better yourselves." 

This, however, was no easy matter, in view of the 
differences in opinion prevalent among the curious 
bed-fellows, who, driven by necessity, were tempo- 
rarily occupying the couch of Patriotism. 

In this same year the term of the Raadpensionaris 
of Holland expired and there was great dissimilar- 
ity of ideas as to whether or not he should be re- 
appointed. The present occupant, old van Bleis- 
wyk, as we have often had occasion to remark, was 
an old fogy, a friend of everybody, but generally 
used as an instrument by the Patriots. The ques- 
tion was whether to retain him as a sort of dummy 
or to appoint a man who openly and avowedly was 
a member of the Opposition. The Pensionaris of 
Amsterdam, van Berckel, wanted to be appointed. 
But he was considered to be too impetuous, and 
France was afraid that he would be too independ- 
ent — more so than old van Bleiswyk, with whom 
one could talk. There were two other candidates. 
They were van Zeeberg, the Pensionaris of the town 
of Haarlem, and de Gyselaer, Pensionaris of Dor- 
drecht. Together with van Berckel, these three, 
whenever they were together in the Hague to at- 
tend the meetings of the Estates of Holland, met 
regularly and formed the unofficial executive com- 
mittee of the Opposition. They were, therefore, all 
three conversant with the aims and desires of the 



342 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Patriots. But the two last-named men did not be- 
long by birth to the exclusive circles, and though 
they were useful on account of their capacities, they 
were not considered quite the equals of those Re- 
gents who benefited by their services. Further- 
more, de Gyselaer was known to be addicted to 
very democratic views and, opposition or no oppo- 
sition, the Regents did not desire to further the 
interests of the left wing of their party, which at any 
moment might prove itself more dangerous than 
the Stadholder. 

In order to escape all possible complications, 
everything was left as before. Van Bleiswyk was 
continued in office and the triumvirate of stad- 
holders was kept out of harm's way. For the pre- 
sent the three pensionarises were kept fully occu- 
pied. The fight against the Stadholder was once 
more taken out of the papers and pamphlets and 
continued on practical grounds. 

The Stadholder derived his greatest power from 
the right which he enjoyed in most cities to make 
the appointments for the town council. He could 
pack those very influential bodies any way he 
pleased, and not infrequently he used the power 
more for his own benefit than for that of the city 
with which he was dealing. The new school of po- 
litical thought, however, began to reason that since 
the cities had once upon a time given the Stadholder 
this right of their own free will, they were also en- 
titled to deprive him of it whenever they pleased. 



THE PATRIOTS 343 

Friesland, which had always done everything 
just a Httle bit differently from everybody else, 
informed the Prince that it considered the right of 
appointment to have reverted to the Regents. The 
cities of Rotterdam, Dordrecht, and Schoonhoven 
did the same in Holland. In this measure the demo- 
crats supported the Regents. It was to their inter- 
est that the municipal appointments should be 
decided right at home, where through a threat of 
violence they could exercise some influence, rather 
than by the Stadholder, many miles away. Gradu- 
ally most of the cities followed suit, and made pre- 
parations to declare themselves more completely 
autonomous. 

Now the Stadholder might have done either one 
of two things. He might have said, "I make you a 
present of it. Take it and be happy." Or he might 
have said, *'I will not have it, and shall prevent it." 
Either course would have been dignified, and would 
have settled the problem in a definite way. But 
instead of doing this, he complained about the 
infamous way in which he was deprived of the 
rights and privileges which his ancestors had pos- 
sessed, and there dropped the matter. Since, ac- 
cording to the Dutch proverb, a scolding does not 
hurt, the towns promptly relegated His Highness's 
complaints to their respective archives and con- 
tinued on their course. As a result, the custom- 
ary chaos of the Republic's political life was made 
even worse. For many years there was absolutely 



344 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

no unity in the matter of appointments. In some 
cities the Stadholder continued to exercise his 
right. In others the town council made itself 
completely autonomous. In Holland, the estates, 
"pending the decision of this serious question," 
took it upon themselves to make the appointments 
which up to that time had been made by the Stad- 
holder, and exercised this right under the very nose 
of His Highness. 

His rebus perfectis, to use the style of the Latin 
chronicler, the Opposition continued to the next 
number on their programme. The Stadholder was 
commander-in-chief of the troops of the Republic. 
As such he could exercise great influence in the 
High Military Court, which was the body to which 
all military cases were appealed. ^^ The Regents, 
with their dislike of all military affairs, almost 
from the beginning of the Republic's existence, had 
opposed this court, which often interfered with the 
civil courts. There had been so many cases in 
which the decision of the Stadholder had been op- 
posed to what seemed right and just to the civil 
courts that they filled a number of stately volumes. 
Especially in cases where trouble had arisen be- 
tween military and civil persons, all sorts of com- 
plicated questions had come up, which had been 
settled to the dissatisfaction of the citizens in- 
volved. 

It was said that such great power in the hand of 
one official might be most detrimental to the safety 



THE PATRIOTS 345 

of the country. The argument, of course, was a 
purely poHtical one. But as such it was used with 
great adroitness by the Opposition. Van Berckel 
had made himself quite famous for his violent at- 
tacks upon the Stadholder's power in the military 
jurisdiction. Dominie van der Kemp had collected 
the thousand-odd cases which we have just men- 
tioned and had printed them in volumes of convinc- 
ing weight. The Estates of Holland now made short 
work of the whole affair by forbidding the High 
Military Court to hold sessions within the limits of 
the province and refusing to pay its share of the 
funds necessary to maintain the court. The other 
provinces followed suit, and the Prince found him- 
self deprived of this part of his executive power 
without so much as a word of excuse or explanation. 

Having now suffered two humiliations within a 
short time, it was felt necessary for the Stadholder 
to do something in return. Therefore some ill- 
advised partisan of His Highness hit upon the idea 
of going at once to the plain people and asking 
them to pronounce their unshakable confidence in 
His Highness. 

Accordingly an address was gotten up by a num- 
ber of citizens and soldiers, " who with the greatest 
horror had taken cognizance of the terrible calum- 
nies spread abroad about a man who spent all his 
strength upon the affairs of the country." This 
document was being circulated for signatures just 
about the time of the feast of St. Nicholas. The 



346 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

day, usually one of public jollifications, promised to 
be exceptionally gloomy in this year of war and de- 
pression, when people had neither money nor spir- 
its to waste upon frolic. 

Since everybody in the Hague was more or less 
dependent upon the custom of the Stadholder's 
court, a large crop of signatures was expected. 
But with the clumsiness which was the hall-mark 
of everything the friends of the Prince ever did, 
they used three notorious town loafers to go about 
from house to house to collect signatures. The lan- 
guage of the address disgusted a number of people, 
as being too deferential. They, therefore, got up an 
address of their own, differently worded. Before 
a week had gone by, two different parties were cir- 
culating two different addresses. They did this 
with so much ill-feeling between them that the au- 
thorities began to fear an open outbreak, and fin- 
ally the mayor of the town, who was at the same 
time commander of the militia, forbade the further 
circulation of the documents. 

Unfortunately this order was given on the day 
of St. Nicholas. ^'^ The town was full of people from 
the neighboring villages. Everybody was out, 
looking at the special displays in the windows of 
the shops and the booths which had been put up 
in the principal streets. It was customary for the 
Stadholder to go out on the afternoon of this day 
and buy the presents for his household, and it was 
customary for the lower classes to become intox- 



THE PATRIOTS 347 

icated. A most unfortunate moment for the mayor 
to promulgate an edict which could not be con- 
strued in any other light but that of an insult 
to His Highness, the Prince of Orange. Nothing, 
however, happened that day. The crowd did get 
slightly hilarious, did repair to the palace of the 
Stadholder, and did cheer His Highness and His 
Highness's family. Part of them also repaired to 
the house of the Raadpensionaris and hooted him. 
But to the astonishment of all, nothing whatsoever 
happened that could be called disorderly. 

Notwithstanding this, the Patriotic party made 
a great commotion about the happenings on St. 
Nicholas's night. They accused the Orangists of 
having incited the mob to riot, of having committed 
gross acts of provocation in the hope of being al- 
lowed to massacre all Patriots, and so on, and so on. 
It was midwinter, and the Estates of Holland had 
gone home. Only van Berckel and de Gyselaer 
happened to be in the Hague. Without losing a 
moment's time they convoked the estates, and with 
unheard-of speed Their Mightinesses returned to 
the Hague to deliberate upon the grave danger 
which they had just escaped by such a narrow 
margin. 

As a result of their deliberations they accused the 
Stadholder of not having taken sufficient steps to 
quell the disturbances. The poor Stadholder went 
personally to the meeting of the estates, and as- 
sured the gentlemen that there had been no dis- 



S48 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

turbance at all; that there had been nothing more 
than the ordinary St. Nicholas celebrations, and that 
there was no reason to punish any person. 

A special commission appointed by the estates 
to investigate the matter failed to find basis for any 
proceedings. The story, however, had done its 
share to confuse the mind of the public. Vague 
rumors of an intended St. Bartholomew of all the 
Patriots, of the departure of the estates from the 
Hague to Haarlem, and of the suspension of the 
Prince as commander of the former city kept peo- 
ple guessing about the truth of the matter. 

From that time on, the leaders of the Opposition 
began to behave as if the Stadholder no longer re- 
sided in their midst. When New Year's Day came 
— a day rather notorious for the hilarity caused by 
the amount of liquor spent in drinking people's 
health — a great ado was made about a possible re- 
currence of the "riot" of St. Nicholas's Day. Extra 
patrols were kept on duty all day long, but not- 
withstanding a great deal of provocation from the 
Patriots nothing happened. 

That winter was as unhappy a winter as ever 
visited Holland. Business was at a standstill. 
Ships could neither enter nor leave port. Age-old 
industries, the mainstay and pride of many small 
cities, disappeared altogether, never to be revived. 

To make matters worse, the grip made its epi- 
demic entrance into the Republic. It was far more 
deadly then than now. In Amsterdam twice as 



THE PATRIOTS 349 

many people died that winter as ordinarily. The 
fleet in Texel was condemned to complete inactiv- 
ity because half of the officers and men were sick. 
Even van der Capellen had to stop writing letters 
for a while, until this new invention of the doctors 
(as he kindly called it) should have left his aching 
bones. Under these depressing circumstances, in 
this veritable Black Year, the people were willing to 
believe anything, to go to any extreme, to give vent 
to their pent-up feelings of discontent and despair. 
If only at this critical moment, there had been a 
man willing and able to incite the Stadholder to do 
something "positive," all might not have been lost. 
There were many people, indeed a majority, who 
still felt scant sympathy for the extreme Patriots. 
Though willing to acknowledge that the present 
state of the Republic was an abnormality, that 
improvements were most urgently necessary, they 
feared to trust the work of demolishing and rebuild- 
ing to a party which subjected itself to such con- 
tinual and severe criticism, which showed no ca- 
pacity whatsoever for constructive statesmanship. 
We know very well that all such historical conjec- 
tures as these are quite futile. Even a first-rate man 
might have succumbed to the difficulties which 
centuries of misgovernment had accumulated. 
Perhaps a radical doctor of the kind of Mr. Bona- 
parte was the only person who could change the 
existing order of things by first doing away with the 
old ruins. 



350 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

But nothing is so exasperating as this whole 
period of halfway measures, this stupid and apolo- 
getic floundering around when action was the only- 
possible salvation. It is all very well to drop a senti- 
mental tear about the kindness of heart of Good 
William, who would not spill a drop of the blood of 
even one of his subjects; but a little strength at that 
moment might have saved all the many thousand 
drops that had to be wasted afterwards, before a de- 
cision was finally reached. In his habit of indecision 
and wavering at critical moments, William V was 
fully the equal of Louis XVI. 

Take, for example, the affair which in 1783 oc- 
curred in Rotterdam. In Rotterdam the condition 
was very much like that in all the principal cities of 
the Republic. On top, the Regents, who, with the 
exception of a few of the prominent families, were 
all Patriotic; in the middle, the vast layer of rich 
non-Regent families, lawyers, doctors, smaller mer- 
chants, who were members of the democratic wing 
of the Patriotic party; at the bottom, the crowd, 
the thousands of laborers on the docks and in the 
harbors, the small shopkeepers, artisans, and sailors, 
who were ardent supporters of the Stadholder. 

The higher layers of the community lived a life 
of comfortable ease. The lowest led a very precari- 
ous existence, a dreary workaday life with few en- 
joyments, and those of the very coarsest sort. A few 
times a year, whenever there was a celebration in 
connection with some event in the family of the 




THE PRINCESS WILHELMINA 
After a bust by M. A. Falconnet 



THE PATRIOTS 351 

Prince of Orange, the crowd would make a holiday 
and forget their daily cares in wild and disorderly 
carousals. 

Rotterdam, which of all the Dutch cities was 
most directly interested in the English trade, suf- 
fered terribly through the war. The lowest classes, 
embittered by their hard fate during those days 
of misery, were in a very ugly temper. From the 
Hague came rumors of the continual new insults 
which the Stadholder suffered at the hands of the 
Patriots. The fact that their own city government 
had a hand in these doings made the feeling against 
the local Regents and their allies, the democrats, 
very bitter. As a sort of counter-demonstration, 
the people decided to celebrate the birthday of the 
Prince with extraordinary brilliancy. ^^ 

It was an old custom for the inhabitants of the 
poor quarters to go among the residential sections 
to collect money for their common festivities. It 
was good policy to keep the rabble in a pleasant 
temper by a small gift once in a while, and every- 
body used to give something. So it was this year. 
Long before the 8th of March the collection was 
begun, and the night of the day itself was passed in 
the customary way. The poorer quarters were deco- 
rated with Orange flags and the collected funds were 
passed over into the cash-boxes of the barkeepers. 

Nothing happened. No window-panes were de- 
molished. Nobody was threatened with violence. 
There was no rioting of any sort. 



352 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

But the local Patriots followed the example of 
the Hague, and made a great commotion about the 
day's doings. They made protestations before the 
town council and wrote their grievances in pa- 
pers and pamphlets. Their most valuable lives had 
been imperiled and their worldly goods had been 
threatened with devastation. 

Their Lordships of the town hall showed no de- 
sire to risk their own window-panes for the benefit of 
their esteemed auxiliaries. They declared that the 
people had disported themselves as was their good 
old right, and declined to take steps towards pun- 
ishing anybody. Similar occurrences happened in 
many parts of the country. Nowhere was decisive 
action taken. All the discussion resulted only in a 
continuation of the existing chaotic conditions. 

It became more and more evident that to attain 
results the Opposition must act according to a more 
definite programme. The Patriotic movement was 
gradually developing along entirely different lines, 
not only in each separate province, but in almost 
every city. In Holland the three principal pen- 
sionarises indicated the general policies which the 
other provinces could adhere to or not as they saw 
fit. Frequently the others refused to follow Hol- 
land's lead, and concerted action took place in but 
very few instances. Already the more conservative 
elements among the Patriots were beginning to show 
their dislike of the methods practiced by the more 
radical ones, and to look for ways and means by 



THE PATRIOTS 353 

which to be rid of friends who threatened to prove 
more dangerous than enemies. 

On the 26th of April, 1783, seventy Regents and 
leaders of the Patriots met in Amsterdam to cele- 
brate the success of Brother van der Capellen, who 
had just won his fight for reinstatement in the 
Estates of Overysel. It was remarked, however, 
that the conservative members of the Opposition 
preferred to stay away from a place where the de- 
mocratic van der Capellen was to be the guest of 
honor. It was the more radical men of the party, 
politicians of the type of de Gyselaer, who were 
prominent upon this occasion. ^^ 

After this first meeting a general convention of 
Patriots from all over the country was held later in 
the year, and the differences of opinion were even 
more marked. Though there were more members 
of the nobility from Friesland, Overysel, and Gel- 
derland, there were no leading Holland Regents, 
and mere plebeians of the sort of van der Kemp and 
his friends had a great deal to say and were listened 
to with attention. 

From words these more thorough-going members 
moved gradually to deeds. They felt their helpless 
position. Beneath them was the large mass of the 
people, without any understanding of the Patriots' 
philosophical discussions or their ultimate aims. 
Above them were the Regents, who supported 
them because they needed them, but who really 
feared them and disliked them most cordially. 



354 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

Finally in the Hague lived the Stadholder, who was 
still the head of a loyal army (such as it was), and 
who, if he desired to do so, might crush the whole 
movement at any moment. The Patriots needed 
some way in which to defend themselves, and they 
found this in the erection of a so-called Free 
Corps.^" 

As we have seen before, the old-fashioned town 
militia had gradually lost all its force and prestige 
as a military power. It had developed into a dining 
society, which, on rare occasions, when a fire broke 
out or a riot threatened the town, was called upon 
to help out the local police. 

In the Middle Ages, however, these citizen sol- 
diers had done great things, and with the interest 
newly awakened by the glorious deeds of the Ameri- 
can farmer soldiers, it was felt that a rejuvenation 
of this old institution would bring to the younger 
generation some of the old prowess of their glorious 
ancestors. 

The Union of Utrecht, that Magna Charta of the 
Republic, had this in common with similar docu- 
ments of other nations, that it seemed to provide 
everybody with a sound argument for his every 
wish. It was, in a measure, all things to all men. It 
contained a veritable mine of precedents. There 
was, for example. Article VIII, to which nobody 
had ever paid any attention, which stipulated that 
a census be taken of all men between eighteen and 
sixty years of age. This census had never been 



THE PATRIOTS 355 

taken except in one province. The Republic had 
found it more profitable to have its fighting done 
by mercenary troops than by its unwilling subjects. 
But there the article was in black and white, and the 
leaders of the Patriots now pointed to it to support 
their good right of forming their own so-called drill- 
ing companies. 

The country was actually in danger. The Eng- 
lish commanded the high seas, the Austrians 
threatened with an invasion by land. What more 
noble proof of their devotion to the fatherland could 
the young men of the country give than by form- 
ing bands of volunteers and learning the arts of 
war.f^ 

The authorities were not formally consulted; the 
members of the Free Corps sprang from the soil like 
revolutionists in South America. In some cities, 
where the Patriots were all-powerful, the local 
militia was entirely changed into a Patriotic corps 
and given officers who belonged exclusively to the 
Patriotic party. In other cities, where the S tad- 
holder or the Regents still retained some control, a 
rival Patriotic Free Corps was established next to 
the already existing town militia. In several vil- 
lages the same thing was done. The country dis- 
tricts, as usual, took no interest in the matter. The 
farmer paid his taxes to support the regular army 
of the Estates General, and for this money he 
expected to be protected against all foreign ene- 
mies. As for making a fool of himself by sporting a 



356 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

silly uniform and a pop-gun he would rather be — 
and so on, and so on. 

But from the beginning of the year 1783 until the 
days of the Restoration the whole country drilled 
and marched and paraded with an enthusiasm 
hitherto entirely unknown. This thing began in 
Dordrecht, where de Gyselaer was the leading 
spirit. Since the days of its capture by Louis XIV, 
Utrecht had always suffered under the unjust "Re- 
gulations " that gave the Stadholder absolute power 
over its political machine. It followed suit and 
changed its town militia into a Patriotic corps. So 
did Rotterdam, where many of the better-class 
merchants took positions as officers. 

In Amsterdam the formation of the Free Corps 
did not proceed so easily. There the Regents feared 
the eventual consequences of allowing such a dan- 
gerous element in their community, an element 
which, though it was now ostensibly directed 
against the Stadholder, might at any moment be 
turned against themselves. But the Free Corps 
movement was too strong to be stopped, and in 
1784 the Amsterdam street urchins had a new insti- 
tution on which to practice their versatility in the 
throwing of invectives, stones, and mud. 

The fact that these Patriotic soldiering com- 
panies did not hold out for a single week against the 
war-worn veterans of Frederick the Great and were 
sold out by their German commander has seemed 
sufficient evidence of their insignificance to give 



THE PATRIOTS 357 

every cigar-puflSng critic the right to criticize them 
for their conceit and their miserable failure. 

But these military corps brought quite a new ele- 
ment into the somnolent and conservative Dutch 
community, and with all their defects had certain 
merits. They broke with all precedent when they 
opened their ranks to all denominations. The dis- 
senter had as much right to enlist as the most faith- 
ful member of the official church. This in itself 
meant quite a revolution. Furthermore, the mem- 
bership in these corps gave many people that which 
they so singularly lacked, self-respect. Dutch so- 
ciety, with its eternal condescension, its system 
of haughty benevolence, its contrast of *'my good 
man" and "your Lordship," had hammered out 
of most of the common people the last vestige of 
independence. 

It had been drummed into the ears of so many 
generations that their "Lordships of the High 
Town Government" were something different from 
the rest of the community, that the rest of the com- 
munity had begun to accept this statement as part 
of the articles of the established faith. 

By joining a Patriotic Free Corps, however, the 
little man found himself gradually drawn into a 
somewhat different position towards his betters. 
The old militia had never worn a regular uniform. 
An Orange sash fastened over the every-day 
clothes had turned the citizen into the soldier. The 
new army corps, however, was put into a regular 



358 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

uniform, and as such it became a more democratic 
institution. The officers were elected by the men, 
and however harmful that system may be to good 
discipline, it gave the average man his first chance 
to feel a direct responsibility in a large institution. 

Up to that time there had been political clubs 
in almost every city, but the Free Corps was the 
place where all men of a certain political conviction 
were thrown together. Like most new institutions 
there was a large amount of exaggeration. Each 
corps was allowed to devise its own standard and 
motto, and a lot of nonsense was indulged in in 
connection with this part of the game of soldiery. 

Finally, the Free Corps was the first step in the 
good direction of breaking up the hopeless pro- 
vincialism of the country. By arranging shooting- 
matches between the Free Corps of different cities, 
many men, who had never poked their noses out- 
side of the immediate confines of their own little 
city, became for the first time in their lives aware of 
the fact that elsewhere there were people made after 
their own image. Gradually, when the movement 
became better organized, manoeuvres were held in 
which the Free Corps of different provinces took 
part. The officers and men had a chance to see 
something of their neighbors, and a feeling of unity 
began to replace the old provincialism. 

From this time on we know in a general way 
what the centre and the left side of the Opposition 
party actually wanted. Many years later, when 



THE PATRIOTS 359 

the French Revolution had proved victorious, it 
became the custom to represent this Patriotic pro- 
gramme as an anticipation of the principles which 
the French Revolution forced upon Europe. Now 
this is in no way the truth. The Hollanders, who 
made their own revolution a dozen years before 
the French, never wanted to go as far as did the 
French. With the exception of a few very vio- 
lent extremists, they were quite moderate in their 
demands. 

They were opposed to the Stadholder, but only 
to the Stadholder in his present condition, which 
made him a mixture of absolute sovereign and 
obedient servant and put him continually in a most 
anomalous position. 

The Dutch Patriots seem to have been inspired 
in many things by the American example. ^^ They 
wanted to retain the Stadholder as the chief execu- 
tive, much after the pattern of the President of the 
United States. The real legislative power, however, 
should be in the hands of the Estates General, who 
should still be drawn from among the Regents, but 
with a certain element of influence from the middle 
class. The Stadholder then should execute the will 
and desires of this new Estates General. In this 
way the eternal quarrels between the jurisdiction of 
the Stadholder and the Estates General would be 
brought to a close. 

In regard to the army and the navy, they should 
no longer be commanded by the Stadholder, who 



360 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

usually was totally unfit for this work, but they 
should be commanded by professional soldiers, 
and the officers should be appointed by the Estates 
General. 

In a like way the Estates General should exercise 
the right of civil appointments, and the Stadholder 
should lose his power to pack the town councils as 
he pleased. 

Democratic, in the modern sense of the word, this 
programme certainly was not. The large mass of 
the people would have benefited but little by it. It 
was, however, a step in the right direction, and if it 
had been carried out would have made the final 
change from the old to the new system less sudden 
and less disastrous. 

This programme was never published officially. 
The party never came forward with a printed 
pamphlet and said, "Fellow citizens, read this, and 
if you agree with it, come and join our ranks." It 
was a so-called secret programme, which, however, 
was generally known and discussed, and shows us 
fairly accurately what was the sentiment of those 
who still hoped to reform the commonwealth before 
it was too late, and who were neither too conserva- 
tive nor too radical to despair of a gradual build- 
ing-up on a sounder basis. 

Under all the appearance of empty-headedness 
which we notice in the speeches and the writings of 
the Patriots, we are surprised to find some sound 
common sense. There were still a number of serious 



THE PATRIOTS 361 

men in their ranks who judged questions upon their 
merits and not upon the merits of the amount of 
poHtical capital which they could possibly make 
out of them. The minutes of some of the Patriotic 
meetings have come down to us and we know what 
questions were discussed. Besides the questions of a 
purely political nature, there was a serious discus- 
sion of a possible way of reorganizing the fleet, the 
country's finances, and the East and West India 
Companies. These companies had long survived 
their usefulness as monopolies, and it was felt that 
they should eventually be taken over by the coun- 
try at large. 

The debates upon those questions, it is true, 
came to no practical results, but we should not for- 
get that we have to deal with people who for the 
most part had been kept strictly outside of all 
political affairs, who had no knowledge of how to 
deal with questions of a public nature, and who now 
made their first attempt at practical politics. 

They took another step in the right direction, 
moreover, when they decided to bring these mat- 
ters before the public at large. For this purpose 
they discussed the erection of a central bureau 
which should reside in the Hague and conduct a 
campaign of publicity. They even considered an 
undertaking of a more stupendous nature, a com- 
plete edition of all the old laws and privileges of the 
different provinces, in order that the public might 
be better acquainted with the state of affairs from 



362 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

which their own commonwealth had gradually 
developed. 

Alas ! the conservative elements of the Opposition 
who supported these reforms soon lost all control 
of the party. The men that came to the fore and 
forced their opinions upon the whole Opposition 
were of an entirely different calibre. 

The inexcusable weakness shown by the Stad- 
holder and his friends made it inevitable that the 
Patriotic party should become more and more 
aggressive. Caution was not necessary in a fight 
which appeared to be so easy. So much had been 
accomplished by mere noise and insolence, that it 
was quite natural for many to feel that a little more 
shouting and a few more insults would result in a 
complete victory over the Stadholder. 

What was to be done next to harass that forlorn 
prince.'^ He had been deprived of the immediate 
companionship of his faithful guardian, but was 
not that guardian still on Dutch territory and in 
constant correspondence with his former pupil? 
Indeed he was. He lived only two days' distance 
from the Hague, and was kept well informed oi 
what happened in the Residence. 

It was decided that he should be removed from 
the Republic's territory entirely, and for this pur- 
pose any pretext would do as well as another. 
Therefore the triumvirate of pensionarises dug up 
from among the archives of the Council of State 
an old matter that had to do with a certain report 



THE PATRIOTS 363 

which, six years before, had been made about the 
condition of the Dutch fortifications along the 
frontier. The author, who had inspected these 
neglected strongholds, was General Dumoulin, a 
well-known engineer who was a personal enemy of 
the Duke of Brunswick. The engineer had found 
the fortifications to be in a most deplorable state 
of neglect, and in his report he had accused the 
Duke of Brunswick of gross carelessness in the 
exercise of his duty as commander-in-chief, while 
acting for the Prince, who was then a minor. 

When that report was made, the Duke was still 
in favor with the Prince and the whole affair had 
been hushed up. Dumoulin had not been expected 
to communicate his secret investigation to any- 
body else, but, according to the existing custom, 
he had talked the whole matter over with several 
of the city pensionarises, and had even given to 
de Gyselaer the notes upon which he had based his 
report. 

All this evidence, acquired in an illegal way, was 
presented by de Gyselaer to the estates at a mo- 
ment when almost everybody was absent on ac- 
count of the Christmas holidays. By a bit of par- 
liamentary juggling a committee was immediately 
appointed by the Estates of Holland to investigate 
the charges that the Duke of Brunswick had al- 
lowed the fortifications to tumble to pieces, and had 
never taken the trouble to stock the empty store- 
houses. This new attack upon the Duke had fur- 



364 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

nished the excitement for the first two months of 
the year 1784. 

In March, however, the matter was forgotten 
because of another event which shocked the people 
a great deal more than the lampoons upon the fat 
Austrian Duke. This was the notorious affair of 
Kaat Mossel in Rotterdam. Xaat Mossel was a 
most prosaic fish-wife, and the way in which she 
was made to play the r61e of martyr and heroine 
was as follows. ^^ 

Rotterdam had never quieted down from the 
excitement attending [the celebration of the Stad- 
holder's birthday the year before. The sight of 
the Patriot soldiers marching proudly through the 
streets, togged up like Prussian grenadiers, was an 
ever fresh source of annoyance to the poorer classes, 
and these soldiers were about as popular as the 
American militia doing duty in a town where there 
is a strike. There was no actual clash between sol- 
diers and mob, but there was the best of ill-feeling 
between the two. The 8th of March again pro- 
mised to be a diflScult day. Nothing serious, how- 
ever, happened except that during the afternoon a 
well-intentioned but intoxicated individual found 
his way to the Stock Exchange and there cried, 
"Hooray for the Prince!" The majority of the 
Rotterdam merchants being strong Patriots, the 
aforementioned individual found himself promptly 
on the pavement, outside the Exchange. His hu- 
miliation had to be avenged. And it was. The 



THE PATRIOTS 365 

next afternoon six gigantic sailors, rigged in every 
conceivable Orange garment, honored the Exchange 
with their visit, walked through the crowd, bumped 
into not a few of the honorable merchants there 
assembled, hurrahed for the Prince, and departed 
unmolested. 

Hence great joy among the populace and great 
mortification among the members of the Exchange, 
who had been hurt in that which is dearest to the 
heart of every Hollander, their respectability. 

Now Rotterdam possessed two rival corps of 
militia. There was the old non-uniformed corps, 
which did not take much interest in politics, and 
there was the Patriotic Free Corps, which took no 
interest in anything else. Of the nine companies of 
which the latter consisted, there was one that con- 
tained all the most offensive elements and which 
found itself in continual trouble with the street 
crowds. This was the company of a certain Cap- 
tain Elzevier. Each of the companies was sup- 
posed to mount guard during the night at regular 
intervals. When, on the 22d of March, it came the 
turn of Captain Elzevier's company, there was 
grave fear of an outbreak. But no outbreak oc- 
curred. The soldiers were jeered at and were ac- 
companied on their way by a band of boys singing 
Orangist songs, but the soldiers and the citizens 
did not come to blows. All the same, the Patriots 
assembled the next day, gravely discussed the dan- 
ger in which they had been the night before, and 



866 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

took a solemn oath to defend themselves unto their 
last drop of blood, should they be attacked. The 
oath sounded well and cost them nothing. 

On the 3d of April, it was again the turn of Cap- 
tain Elzevier's men to mount guard, and this time 
it happened to be Saturday. Now Saturday night 
has been since time immemorial the night when the 
sailor is on shore and when the tough element goes 
out for trouble with the police. 

The Patriotic soldiers assembled in front of the 
town hall. The small place in front of the town hall 
was filled with a boisterous crowd which tried to 
prevent the men from forming ranks. A good deal 
was heard about "Chocolate" soldiers, and the 
free-born Batavians, when requested to move on 
and make room for the Patriots, had a good deal 
to say about "having as much right to be in the 
street as any dressed-up fool of a monkey, who, 
merely because he was dressed up like a monkey, 
expected the whole world to get out of the way." 

Finally, the company mustered and marched 
away. "When they were crossing a small bridge, 
they were assailed with a veritable bombardment 
of stones. The captain commanded his men to fire 
a volley of blank cartridges. This, however, had 
no effect. On the contrary, it made the crowd more 
aggressive. The jeering was renewed. "The sol- 
diers are afraid. They will never dare to fire with 
real bullets," said the crowd. The bombardment 
of stones was renewed. And then happened what 



THE PATRIOTS 367 

always happens in such cases. The soldiers fired 
with ball cartridges, one of the crowd was killed 
instantly, and the rest disappeared in hasty flight, 
leaving behind them a score of wounded. 

This was the first time that political passions 
had been directly responsible for the shedding of a 
citizen's blood, and great was the commotion that 
followed. The news of the Rotterdam "massacre" 
spread throughout the country and was received 
with very mixed but equally intense feelings every- 
where. The Patriots came to the fore with the ar- 
gument that they had only acted in self-defense. 
In consequence no one of Elzevier's company was 
punished. But since their presence was a constant 
menace to the peace of the town, the Free Corps 
was disbanded and the Patriots were forbidden to 
wear their uniforms in the town. At the same time, 
to be equally just to all parties, the Solomons of the 
town hall gave out an interdict against the wearing 
of all orange-colored ribbons, flowers, neckties, or 
other adornment. 

But even these wise measures did not bring about 
the desired peace. The most fantastic rumors 
spread throughout the city at the most inopportune 
moments. Now there was a panic because an Eng- 
lish bombardment was feared; then again because 
the Patriots were said to be organizing a massacre 
of all the supporters of the Prince. In July, again 
on a Saturday night, there was more trouble be- 
tween the poorer classes and the Patriots. The 



368 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

latter by this time held over ten seats in the town 
hall and sent urgent letters to the Estates of Holland 
and complained that their lives were no longer 
secure against the violence of the Orangist mob. 

Whereupon (notice the humorous side of the oc- 
casion !) the good Prince, at the request of the Es- 
tates of Holland, sent some regular troops to the 
town of Rotterdam to protect the valuable lives 
of his most esteemed enemies. But since nothing 
in the Republic was adjudged to be complete 
without the existence of a committee to report 
thereon, the Estates at the same time appointed 
a number of gentlemen who were to proceed to the 
place of disturbance and investigate the matter. 
This committee traveled leisurely to Rotterdam 
and there made itself comfortable in the best hotel. 
It took just two years in which to make its report 
and cost Rotterdam one hundred and five thousand 
guilders for its "expenses." 

As there had been great provocation on both 
sides, it was found difficult to put the blame on 
either of the parties. But since a committee is of no 
value unless it reports upon something, the whole 
affair was at last brought down to two women of the 
fish-market who were known to be strong adher- 
ents of the Prince, and who had spoken about the 
Patriotic soldiers in language which was far from 
flattering. For this offense they were condemned to 
ten and six years imprisonment, respectively, and 
were actually sent to jail. There they stayed until 



THE PATRIOTS 369 

the Prussian army brought about' the Restoration, 
when they were set free and were allowed to return 
to their humble profession of selling mussels. They 
were vulgar people and their methods of expressing 
enthusiasm should not be followed by well-behaved 
citizens. But they suffered in an absurdly unjust 
way for their convictions, and a small reward on the 
part of the Prince would not have been out of place. 
This, however, was not in the man's character, and 
we must pass on to the next question. 

The industrious reader may remember that 
when we took him on this side trip to Rotterdam 
there was at that moment in the Hague a certain 
committee in session which was to report upon the 
affair of General Dumoulin vs. the Duke of Bruns- 
wick. The committee had not yet finished its in- 
vestigation. The Duke refused to budge. Even 
for an offer of so much money in cash down, if 
only he would leave the Republic, he had firmly 
refused to give up the excellent emoluments which 
he still derived from his present post as commander 
of Bois-le-Duc. 

The committee was in doubt what to do next, 
when all of a sudden a new piece of heavy artillery 
was brought into the field, blew away the Duke, and 
seriously damaged the Stadholder. This was the 
publication of the famous "Acte van Consulent- 
schap," the document by which William had given 
himself into the keeping of the Duke. The pub- 
lication of this document, by this time known to a 



370 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

score of people, had often been discussed, but had 
been held back as a sort of reserve force to be used 
only in case of dire need. 

■ In the beginning of the year 1784, it was whis- 
pered about in the leading Patriotic paper, the 
" Post of the Lower Rhine," that there was said to 
exist a secret document of agreement between the 
Prince and his former guardian. This information 
was one of the many bits of news which the editor 
got from his friends in Amsterdam, who used his 
paper as an unofficial mouthpiece for their own 
special purposes. 

Since this statement had been made openly in 
a newspaper, it was easy to continue to follow the 
matter up more openly. The delegates of the town 
of Zierikzee asked the Estates of Zeeland whether 
their Lordships knew of any such thing. Their 
Lordships did not, but they would investigate the 
matter. 

This was the sign for Holland to act, since it 
would never do to be beaten in such matters by 
one of the inferior provinces. The Estates of Hol- 
land, therefore, appointed a commission, consisting 
among others of the Raadpensionaris van Berckel, 
and de Gyselaer, and sent them to the Stadholder 
to ask him officially what was the truth about this 
secret agreement. If such a document did exist, 
would His Highness be willing to send a copy thereof 
to the estates.'^ 
V The Prince confessed that the document did ex- 



THE PATRIOTS 371 

ist, and promised that he would send copies thereof 
not only to the Estates of Holland, but to all of the 
provincial estates and to the Estates General. 

It took ten days to make the eight copies and 
they were then forwarded to the different estates, 
accompanied by a letter of the Stadholder explain- 
ing just how the agreement had come to be made. 
In this letter the Prince openly defended his former 
guardian. He reminded the estates that the Duke 
had only remained in the service of the Republic 
at the urgent entreaties of the estates themselves 
(which was quite true) . He stated that he had not 
bound himself to ask the advice of the Duke upon 
every possible occasion, but only at times when he 
himself thought this necessary. Therefore it seemed 
no more than just that the Duke should not be held 
responsible for advice given under such circum- 
stances. 

The publication of the document came exactly 
at the moment when the difficulties with Joseph of 
Austria were threatening the country with another 
war. Just when the popular anger against Austria 
was at its height, it was discovered that one of the 
Emperor's own field marshals had for years been 
the absolute dictator of the acts of the Stadholder 
of the Republic. It was not a time to expect a sober 
discussion of the pros and cons of the question. 
It was a time of hysterical fears, and the storm 
which broke loose against the Duke was such that 
his position in the Republic became absolutely 



372 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

untenable. The Prince began to see visions of the 
scaffold, and was being followed in his dreams by the 
spook of Charles I. He contemplated a flight to his 
German possessions, there to end his days in peace. 
At last the Duke packed his trunks. He left nothing 
behind but his considerable debts. On the 16th 
of October, 1784, he left for Brunswick, where he 
spent the rest of his days trying to explain in an 
apology how it had all happened. 

For the estates, however, this was not yet the 
end of the affair. They made several attempts to 
get hold of the correspondence of the Duke, in the 
hope that it might contain documents incriminat- 
ing the Prince. A number of foreign soldiers of 
fortune were hired to steal such letters as they 
could find. They went to Aix-les-Bains, where the 
Duke happened to be, but they were sold out by 
one of their colleagues and the noble plan failed. 

Van der Capellen did not witness this great vic- 
tory of the Patriots ! On the 6th of June, 1784, he 
died in ZwoUe, at the age of forty-three. For many 
years, almost since childhood, he had suffered from 
a chronic disease of the stomach, and his political 
activities had been continually interrupted by sick- 
ness. His loss was felt sincerely by his many friends. 
Poetical admirers foresaw the honor which awaited 
him in high heaven as a just reward for his labors. 
Other of his fellow citizens thought differently, and 
as soon as they had a chance to do so without fear 
of punishment they blew up his grave. ^^ 



CHAPTER IX 

LAST YEARS 

In 1785 the Republic was in a terrible condition. 
The war with England was over. The public debt 
had been increased until it was found almost impos- 
sible to pay the interest thereon. The Dutch ships 
that had been taken during the last four years had 
not been returned. The East India Company, 
practically bankrupt, had a hard time to hold its 
own against English competition, which it was 
obliged to permit in part of its possessions. A num- 
ber of colonies had been lost to the Republic for- 
ever. The trade with America since the loss of St. 
Eustatius had dwindled to nothing. 

The people at large, deprived of their ordinary 
revenues, were suffering in mute discontent. The 
well-to-do classes were wasting their energy in 
futile quarrels. Every town and every village, al- 
most every family, was divided against itself. The 
Orangist families kept quietly to themselves. The 
Patriots swaggered about, discussed their affairs 
high and low in the cafes and clubs, and in the 
fashion of some of our modern politicians imputed 
the lowest motives to all those who did not share 
their opinions. Since a large part of the population 
was out of work, the Patriots tried hard to use 
the opportunity to interest these men in the new 



374 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

doctrines. Next to the more fashionable Patriotic 
Club they established societies where the workman 
and the employer should meet each other, and 
where the one should instruct the other in the first 
principles of such wisdom as he himself possessed. 
These clubs were not very successful. The absolute 
class distinction had been so rigorously maintained 
for such a number of years that this fraternization 
was always marred by servility on the one side and 
condescension on the other. It seemed as if the very 
bottom was beginning to fall out of Dutch society 
when the master so far forgot himself that he agreed 
to sit at one and the same table with the servant. 

Already there were a number of signs that great 
changes were taking place in this staid old com- 
munity. The order against the orange color, pro- 
mulgated in Rotterdam after the riots of March, 
1784, had been followed in July of the same year 
by even more drastic orders on the part of the 
Estates of Holland. Not only did they forbid the 
wearing of all orange-colored articles, but they 
changed the names of such vegetables and fruits 
as it had pleased the Almighty Lord to favor with 
an orange skin, or which it had pleased the popular 
fancy to call after the members of the illustrious 
house whose fate was so closely allied to that of 
their country. Finally it was made a penal offense 
to sing, whistle, play, or otherwise produce a cer- 
tain piece of music which, under the name of " Wil- 
helmus of Nassau," had for the last two hundred 



LAST YEARS 375 

and fifty years been the honorable national anthem 
of the United Netherlands. 

The Stadholder, who lived in the same building 
with the men who made these absurd laws, had to 
accept all these insults without a word of remon- 
strance, and henceforward had to order his "Prin- 
cess beans" by whatever name it pleased the Pa- 
triots to rebaptize that good vegetable. More and 
more it was made clear to him that he was no longer 
wanted, and that his removal was the real object 
of the Opposition, now that the ultra-radical ele- 
ments were gradually pushing to the front and were 
taking hold of the leadership of their party. 

In January of the year 1785, the troops of Austria 
threatened to invade the Republic at any moment. 
There being no army and no fortifications, there 
was nothing with which to stop their attack. Will- 
iam asked that the Patriotic Free Corps be used for 
the defense of the fatherland and be sent to the 
frontier to stop the progress of the Austrians. The 
request was met with an immediate refusal. 

The Free Corps had been formed as a means of 
defense of the Patriotic party against the Stad- 
holder and not for the benefit of the common father- 
land. As long as the interests of the party were 
secure, the country could go to the dogs. Accord- 
ingly one province after the other refused to accept 
a plan which might even for a moment deprive 
them of their defense against a possible reaction 
on the part of the Prince's adherents. There was 



376 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

nothing to do but to bribe the Austrian Emperor 
into giving up, for a sum in cash, his outrageous 
demands. 

It is curious to notice the helplessness of the 
Stadholder and to examine the actual force that 
was opposing him with so much vehemence. Even 
in the turbulent Estates of Holland the Patriots 
were only certain of a majority when absolutely 
all the members of the Opposition were present. 
The nobility was still on the side of the Prince, and 
with the increasing violence of the Opposition a 
great many of its former supporters saw their best 
advantage in voting for the Prince. But they suf- 
fered from the same indifference which so often 
characterizes the more philosophical elements of a 
political party. They often stayed away when their 
presence was most needed, and the Patriots, well 
whipped by their three pensionarises, carried vic- 
tory after victory by sheer parliamentary strategy, 
just as a few years later a ridiculously small min- 
ority of France's citizens bullied the rest and cut 
throats to its heart's content because it was better 
organized and more resolute than the others. 

The citizens of almost every town let themselves 
be ordered around by the soldiers of the Free Corps, 
but all in all no more than twenty thousand men 
ever enlisted in these corps, and of those more than 
a quarter came from Holland alone. 

Take Utrecht in this year, for example. In this 
city a few thousand citizen-soldiers and a noisy 



LAST YEARS 377 

orator kept the whole community in commotion. 
In Utrecht, as we have had reason to mention be- 
fore, things had never been as they should have 
been. In 1672 Louis XIV had taken the town, and 
after he had retreated, the Stadholder, William III, 
had managed to acquire complete control of the 
political system of the city and had been the " Boss " 
of the town until his death in 1702. Then Utrecht 
had regained her autonomy. In 1747, however, 
when the stadholders were restored, William IV, 
and later on his son, William V, had again been 
masters of the town. They had control of all the 
offices in the city, and no person, of whatever rank 
or position, could hope to achieve anything without 
paying tribute to the Prince or his representative. 
The Prince was never personally present, but his 
representative, who was always in Utrecht, en- 
riched himself at the expense of the public, and there- 
fore was thoroughly hated, and unpopular with all 
classes. As we have also remarked before, Utrecht 
was a university town, and, situated in the centre 
of the country, it knew what was going on abroad 
as well as at home. The town was prosperous and 
the population a little better informed upon a num- 
ber of questions than most people in the Republic. 
For a score of years there had been active opposi- 
tion, from a most respectable part of the inhabit- 
ants, to the so-called "Regulation," which deliv- 
ered the town into the power of the Stadholder. 
William, however, was headstrong and obstinate, 



378 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

and refused to give up his ancient rights and ad- 
hered to the smallest of his prerogatives. Since he 
had no understanding whatsoever of the events 
which were taking place around him, he considered 
the opposition to the "Regulation" merely an- 
other manifestation of that personal cussedness 
which unfortunately marked so many of his sub- 
jects. Now it happened that in 1784 there was a 
vacancy in the town council, and according to the 
law the Stadholder was at liberty to appoint some 
one for the place without considering the wishes of 
the other members of the council. 

Before the Prince had appointed any one, how- 
ever, seven hundred citizens of Utrecht petitioned 
the council to disregard the doubtful privilege of 
the Stadholder, to take matters into their own 
hands, and to appoint whomever they pleased to fill 
the vacancy in their midst. The petition formally 
stated that the council, as the representative of 
the ancient guilds and the militia, was perfectly 
entitled to follow this course. 

With a majority of twenty-six votes the council 
actually did what it was requested to do and filled 
the vacancy without consulting the Prince. The 
new councillor was noisily acclaimed by the Pa- 
triots, and upon the occasion of his first appearance 
in the town hall was accompanied by a guard of 
honor of Free Corps soldiers. 

The Stadholder protested. He sent a formal 
document to the estates of the province, called the 



LAST YEARS 379 

diocese, although for the last two hundred and 
forty-six years there had been no bishop con- 
nected with it. The estates, however, declined to 
give the Stadholder satisfaction. They left it to 
the town of Utrecht herself to decide whether the 
Regulation of 1672 was contrary to the ancient 
laws of the province or not. If it was, the council 
was completely within its rights in disregarding the 
so-called privilege of the Stadholder. But after this 
first heroic act a reaction followed, and the wise and 
prudent councillors of the good town of Utrecht 
were frightened by their own intrepidity. When 
all was said and done they had allowed themselves 
to be imposed upon by the crowd in the street, and 
in this way they had established a very dangerous 
precedent. What would prevent the people from 
another time petitioning them to dismiss the man 
they had just appointed ? 

Thus it happened that ere long, when a second 
vacancy took place, a number of councillors fell 
suddenly ill and were prevented from attending the 
session which was to elect their new fellow member. 
This time the majority by which the new man was 
elected was quite small. The next time it proved 
to be turned into a minority. 

This backsliding on the part of their town council 
was very little to the taste of the Patriots, who in 
Utrecht were thoroughly imbued with democratic 
doctrines. They continued the agitation for several 
much needed local improvements, and obtained 



380 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

from the town council the decision that a com- 
mittee of nine aldermen should sit for five weeks 
to hear the humble requests of the citizens about 
such improvements as they thought necessary. No 
sooner was this request granted than it rained a 
storm of petitions. In every bookshop monster 
petitions were open to all those who would come 
and sign them. 

What the Regents of the town had feared act- 
ually happened. The Patriots not only directed 
their attacks against the Stadholder, but they also 
asked for the appointment of a consulting body of 
citizens which should control the finances of the 
city and should be heard before new taxes were 
written out. Such a consulting board of citizens 
was not a novelty. In several of the small cities of 
Overysel such committees had been appointed at 
the instigation of van der Capellen. But never 
before had the plan been tried in a city of the size 
of Utrecht. 

The Regents were sorely pressed to know what 
answer to give to this request. The civic budget 
had from ancient times been the most private re- 
servation, one from which they had derived their 
riches, and they hated beyond words to be con- 
trolled in their expenditures. They now began to 
see that, of the two evils, the Prince was really the 
lesser. When in the course of events another 
vacancy occurred, — this time for the place of 
burgomaster and sheriff, — they refused to appoint 



LAST YEARS 381 

new men as the Patriots asked them to do, but con- 
tinued the old ones in their position until the next 
year. And immediately they started out to repair 
the damage they had inflicted upon their own class 
by their opposition to the Stadholder, and to curb 
the arrogance of the man in the street. 

It was too late, however. Under the leader- 
ship of the former student of theology, young Mr. 
Ondaatje, at present professional Patriot, the ex- 
cited people demanded that the consulting board 
of sixteen be increased to twenty-four, and should 
be chiefly composed of representatives from among 
the Free Corps. The Regents refused point-blank 
to appoint such a body. Whereupon the people 
went ahead and appointed it themselves. The 
eight Free Corps then elected a special committee to 
watch over their own particular interests, and the 
town of Utrecht suddenly found itself in the posses- 
sion of three different independent political bodies, 
each of which wanted to do certain things in a 
different way. 

The fight between the Stadholder and the town 
of Utrecht now became a quarrel between the 
Regents and the Patriots. Against the united op- 
position of all the Patriotic elements in the town, 
the council, in the summer of 1785, elected, with a 
majority of sixteen, a gentleman who was greatly 
disliked by the rank and file of the Patriots. The 
Patriots threatened violence unless the appoint- 
ment was canceled. The council immediately lost 



382^ FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

its courage, and promised not to allow the new 
member to attend its sessions until it should have 
heard what the people had to say. The people came 
and through their spokesman, Ondaatje, delivered 
to the High and Mighty Gentlemen of the Council 
a beautiful speech on the Rights of the People and 
the Duties of the Government. 

The Gentlemen of the Council promised that 
they would consider the matter; which they did 
ad infinitum. Therefore, when the days went by 
and no decisive answer was given, the Patriots 
addressed themselves again to the most honorable 
council and asked for a definite reply. No reply was 
forthcoming. Whereupon, after another interval of 
several days, a turbulent mass of Patriots and Free 
Corps soldiers appeared before the town hall, and 
once more, through Ondaatje, asked the gentlemen 
what they intended to do. The Honorable Gentle- 
men of the Council, who did not belong to the race 
of Oldenbarneveldt and de Witt, were scared be- 
yond words at the sight of the agitated crowd. 
They reversed their former decision and unseated 
the man whom they had just appointed. 

This was too much for many of the members of the 
council. They felt ashamed of their cowardice and 
resigned their seats rather than continue in a posi- 
tion where they could be bullied into submission by 
a squad of "strong-arm" men. 

The Opposition in Utrecht, however, was from 
now on sharply divided. The democratic Patriots 



LAST YEARS 383 

had been the victors. But all the conservative ele- 
ments of the party began to hold back and to look 
for a possible cooperation with the Stadholder and 
the other conservatives in the Republic. 

The same thing happened in the estates of the 
province. The Regents who had seats in the es- 
tates discovered that, as a result of their agitation 
against the Prince, they now had to deal with an 
infinitely more dangerous enemy. In a number of 
small towns the example of Utrecht was at once 
followed. Committees of citizens were appointed, 
and besides the existing town council, rival councils 
were being established. In a short while the condi- 
tions became so chaotic that an appeal for troops 
had to be made to the Stadholder, and garrisons had 
to be established in several of the rebellious cities 
to make their citizens behave themselves and stop 
disturbing the peace. 

No wonder that at the general meetings of the 
Patriots which took place in this year the Regents 
were entirely absent, and that the differences be- 
tween the right and the left wing of the party 
became more pronounced than ever. Of the three 
pensionarises only de Gyselaer was present. Gelder- 
land and Overysel sent many members, but 
Utrecht, which had just suffered on account of the 
Patriotic agitation, was not represented at all. 
There was a good deal of talk about the danger in 
which the party found itself, and in order to watch 
the occurrences of the day more carefully a com- 



884 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

mission of seven was appointed, and it was decided 
to appeal to the whole nation for money. 

During all these events, the Stadholder still 
resided in the Hague, but entirely as a negligible 
quantity. His communications to the Estates, 
asking for an investigation of the lampoons that 
were being daily published about him, were left 
unanswered. His requests for redress for the many 
insults and personal attacks to which he was con- 
stantly subjected, were unceremoniously put upon 
the table. 

And now a row between some town loafers and 
some Free Corps soldiers was taken as an excuse to 
deprive the Prince of the command of the garrison 
of the Hague and to transfer it to the Estates of 
Holland.^* The Prince protested. In an angry let- 
ter he asked who had dared take command of his 
troops. The only answer to this document was an 
attempt made by Holland to deprive His High- 
ness also of his commandership of the troops of the 
Union. This was too much even for such a patient 
individual as William V. On September 15 he left 
the Hague and went to Breda. His wife and children 
he sent to Leeuwarden. It was his plan that after a 
while they should all move to his German estates. 
But he never got so far as that, for the Princess 
managed to convince her husband that such a step 
would look like a flight before the Patriots and 
would spoil his chance of ever returning. Therefore 
the Prince agreed to stay in the Republic, and chose 



LAST YEARS 385 

Nymegen in Gelderland as his residence. There he 
amused himself as best he could hunting and vis- 
iting such families as remained faithful. Like his 
father before him he was a great "waiter." He 
could wait patiently until the day of vindication 
should come. For the moment there was little hope 
that that day would soon arrive. Uncle Frederic 
in Berlin was very old and had gathered enough 
fame for one lifetime. He preferred not to mix him- 
self up in what was so essentially a family quarrel. 
The only hope was that the Opposition would 
become disorganized over the question of how to 
divide the spoils. 

And this is what actually happened. A very 
natural reaction was bringing about a sudden 
change in the minds of many people. They had 
never cared much for the weak Stadholder. But 
now that he had been obliged to leave the Province 
of Holland they asked themselves whether he had 
really deserved such a fate. And they came to the 
conclusion that he had not; that he had not been 
quite so bad after all, and that all the trouble was 
the work of the wicked Patriots. 

The Patriots had fallen upon difficult days. The 
democratic wing of the party found that since it 
had done the work for the Regents it was no longer 
needed, and was being pushed back to the obscure 
position from which it had just arisen with so much 
trouble. This was not what the democratic Patriots 
had entered the fight for, and they made this very 



386 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

clear to the Regents. But the Regents, under the 
pressure of danger to their own position, made 
a firm stand and prepared to reestabHsh the old 
order of things. 

It was too late, however. The harm had been 
done! The butcher and the baker and the candle- 
stick-maker, who for so many years had been ac- 
customed to count as a very small item in the 
machinery of State, refused to return to their old 
positions of most humble servants and take orders 
from their betters. The members of the middle 
class, which had been all-powerful for almost three 
years, did not fancy a return of the conditions which 
gave them about as much power as the meanest 
coal-heaver. 

The Regents tried to disband the Free Corps. All 
of a sudden they had scruples about the existence of 
armed bodies which were not primarily destined to 
protect the town in case of riot and fire. Would the 
members of the Free Corps please give up their 
arms and return to their former occupations .^^ No, 
the Free Corps would do nothing of the sort. They 
liked their life, with its cheap and easy glory, much 
too well to give it up for a return of the old dull 
days. 

The period of unrest continued to last for many 
years. The Prince, still nominally the Stadholder 
of all the provinces, lived in semi-exile in Gelder- 
land, and tried by a series of trips through the coun- 
try provinces to regain some of his lost prestige. 



LAST YEARS 387 

Holland and Utrecht, however, formed a state 
within a state, and treated their stadholder as if he 
were an enemy of their little sovereign nation and 
should not be allowed upon their territory. 

The Republic began more and more to resemble 
the South American Repubhc of comic-opera fame. 
There was not even a semblance of order. Van der 
Kemp, who had left the ministry for good, organ- 
ized in a little village in Utrecht a new common- 
wealth which suddenly declared itself independent 
of the Estates as well as of the Stadholder. When 
he refused to disband the regiment of dragoons 
which he had formed among the local rustics, 
a military action against his new republic was 
planned. At the news thereof volunteers from all 
parts of Utrecht and Holland flocked to the little 
town of Wyk-by-Duurstede and diligently worked 
to put the townlet in a state of defense. The army 
of the Estates, however, did not appear, and the 
new republic of seven hundred souls died a natural 
death. 

In Gelderland there were two insignificant vil- 
lages, called Hattem and Elburg. In the first of the 
two there was a very active patriotic youth called 
Daendels, who later made himself famous as one 
of NajKDleon's generals and as governor-general of 
the Dutch Indies. When his village got into trouble 
with the Stadholder about some local matter, the 
inhabitants decided to cease to recognize the orders 
of the Stadholder. ^^ This they did. Even in the 



388 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

province which the Prince honored with his pre- 
sence he was to be openly disobeyed by a score of 
villagers living in a place of which hardly anybody 
knew the exact location. 

Since the Stadholder commanded a number of 
troops located in the fortresses of the Union along 
the German frontier, it was possible to take im- 
mediate steps against the rebels. At the request of 
the Estates of Gelderland, who were not in the least 
enthusiastic about this behavior of their fellow 
citizens, a number of troops were dispatched against 
the two little cities. At the news of the intended ex- 
pedition Patriots from all over the country rushed 
to the rescue. Day and night they worked at the 
defenses of the two places, but when the Union 
troops finally appeared and fired a single shot, their 
courage left them and they fled ; nor did they stop 
until after they had crossed the frontiers of Utrecht. 

The Union troops, however, who for many years 
had suffered under the insults of the Patriots, got 
even with their enemies by plundering the houses of 
some of the local leaders. Whereupon Holland did 
something which was quite unheard of: it formally 
protested in the Estates of Gelderland against the 
barbarous behavior of the Stadholder^s soldiers. 

They of Gelderland sent a lengthy answer to 
Holland, the gist of which sounded remarkably like 
*'Min(i your own business." This the Estates of 
Holland declined to do. The game they were really 
after was the Stadholder and not the estates of a 



LAST YEARS 389 

neighboring province. To William, who during all 
the commotion had quietly remained in Nymegen, 
they addressed a very curt note, and asked him 
to state within twenty-four hours exactly what he 
thought of the violent measures to which the Es- 
tates of Gelderland had resorted in order to subdue 
a few innocent rioters. 

The Prince answered in substance that he had 
had nothing to do with the whole matter; that at 
the request of the estates of the province he had fur- 
nished some troops as it was his duty to do, but that 
this was an internal affair of the Estates of Gelder- 
land, which, as the sovereign of their own province, 
could take such measures as pleased them to main- 
tain order. 

Holland, however, had expected a disavowal of 
the conduct of the Gelderland Estates. The panic 
caused by the frightened Patriotic soldiers had been 
followed by a terrible storm in the press. In the Es- 
tates of Holland, de Gyselaer had characterized the 
conduct of William as that of a second Alva. The 
Patriots had to go back to Philip II of Spain and to 
Nero to find examples of such cruelty and lust as 
had just been manifested by William, when he al- 
lowed his murderous troops to descend upon the 
innocent children of the land and transform a peace- 
ful scene into smouldering ruins. 
! .^ Under the influence of these exaggerated senti- 
ments the Estates of Holland now went one step 
farther, and by a majority of fifteen votes, on the 



390 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

22d of September, 1786, they declared that William V 
had been deprived of his high office of commander- 
in-chief of the army and the navy. Since the Prince 
was not appointed to this office by the Estates Gen- 
eral, but by each province separately, the Estates 
of Holland could legally take this step. But it can 
easily be imagined what the result was upon the 
general condition of the country. From that time 
on, so far as Holland and Utrecht were concerned, 
there was no longer any stadholder at all. Without 
saying so openly they really seceded, and they hinted 
that they would never allow the Stadholder to re- 
turn to their territory. 

The fear that the Stadholder might call upon the 
regular troops and that his adherents in the different 
large cities might try to throw off the unpopular 
Patriotic yoke, threw these two provinces into a 
veritable turmoil. A German princelet, with some 
reputation as a soldier, was hired to command the 
army of Free Corps soldiers, and the town of 
Utrecht, which was the advance post on the road 
from Nymegen to Amsterdam, was strongly forti- 
fied. 

All to no purpose. The Stadholder did not move. 
After long hesitation he went at last to Amersfoort, 
where, after a continual quarrel between Patriots 
and Regents, he had been obliged to send a few sol- 
diers. His friends in Holland urged him to move 
swiftly across the frontier of Holland and show him- 
self in the Hague. The people at large, so they as- 



LAST YEARS 391 

sured him, were so disgusted with the overbearing 
insolence of the Patriots that they would welcome 
their stadholder with the greatest joy. No harm 
would befall him. He would find thousands who 
were willing to give their lives for his defense, if 
only he would take the initiative and come. 

The Stadholder did not move. Finally his wife, 
tired of the humiliation of hesitating and of the 
whole business, decided to go instead of her husband. 
For many years she really had been the intellectual 
head of the Prince's whole family and had acted 
when her husband could not make up his mind what 
to do. But the clumsiness which had become char- 
acteristic of everything undertaken by the Prince 
or his friends was present even in this supreme 
moment. In order to succeed, it was necessary that 
the Stadholder should be in the Hague before the 
Patriots could become aware of his presence. Except 
by a complete surprise nothing could possibly be 
achieved. Instead of preparing the expedition to 
the Hague secretly, however, everything was done 
in a most open way. Instead of traveling with only 
a few friends, a whole staff of maids and flunkeys 
must needs be dragged along. Instead of going post- 
haste with fast horses, the regular postal route was 
used and all the horses along the road were chartered 
days beforehand.®^ 

No wonder that the Patriots in Holland knew 
about the plan long beforehand. They sent dele- 
gations of their soldiers to the different villages 



392 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

along the frontier and waited. When finally, on the 
28th of June, 1787, the Princess and her large retinue 
set out for the Hague, she was promptly stopped the 
moment she entered the territory of the Province 
of Holland and was forced to go back to Nymegen. 

Here was something entirely new in the annals 
of Dutch history. The stories which were circu- 
lated about brutal treatment of the Princess were 
nonsense. She was treated respectfully by the oflS- 
cers who commanded the Patriots, and suffered no 
hardships. But in 1787 it meant something for a few 
farmers and cheese-dealers, dressed up to represent 
soldiers, to stop the sister of the King of Prussia, to 
put her under technical arrest, and tell her please 
to return whence she had come. Such things could 
not pass by unnoticed. Before many days were 
over, a great rumbling was heard from the direction 
of the Prussian capital and His Prussian Majesty 
wanted to know what it all meant. He was informed 
that this was purely a question of the Estates of 
Holland. They alone were responsible. The Es- 
tates General had neither dared to oppose them nor 
to encourage them in their conduct, and it was to 
the Estates of Holland that the King of Prussia was 
asked to address his remonstrances, which he did 
with a great showing of righteous anger. 

Holland again had vague hopes of help from 
France. But France was not in the least inclined 
to risk a war on behalf of the crazy crowd which at 
that moment governed the once so mighty province. 



LAST YEARS 393 

The other provinces tried to appease the wrath of 
His Majesty by officially disapproving the conduct 
of Holland. So did the Estates General after all was 
over. 

' This was the time for the extremists among the 
Patriots. All those who still had something to lose 
went over to the conservative wing of the party. 
All those who had nothing to lose doubled their 
energies towards bringing about a conflict. In the 
Estates of Holland the most absurd laws were being 
passed against all the enemies of State. Those who 
were openly caught in any way showing their sym- 
pathy for the Stadholder could almost without 
form of process be shot. It was openly advised to 
confiscate the possessions of the Stadholder and to 
exclude him and his house forever from the stad- 
holdership. 

From all sides the Free Corps marched to the 
places where attacks were most feared. The Patri- 
otic papers shrieked in the loudest notes of hysteria. 
Prussia was collecting twenty thousand men along 
the frontiers of Gelderland. An invasion might be 
expected hourly. And still the Estates of Holland 
refused to offer to the Prussian King their excuses 
for the insult which his sister had suffered at being 
returned from Holland territory as if she were a 
traitor to the State. According to the estates there 
never had been any insult at all. They, the estates, 
were sovereign in their own territory and could re- 
fuse admittance to whomsoever they pleased. 



394 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

The first Prussian demand for satisfaction was 
followed by a second one, in even plainer language. 
The answer which the estates sent was practically 
the same. In so many words, they stated what 
they would rather do than apologize. 

Thereupon the King of Prussia sent an ultima- 
tum. Either the Estates of Holland would send 
their most humble apologies within four days or 
he would order his troops to invade their province 
and get satisfaction by means of arms. The four 
days went by and the Estates of Holland sent no 
answer. On the 13th of September of the year 
1787, the Prussians, commanded by a cousin of the 
Duke of Brunswick, invaded the Republic and 
along three routes marched towards Utrecht and 
Holland. And then the debacle took place. The 
Patriots had great hopes of Utrecht. The town was 
well fortified and defended the route to Amsterdam. 
The Prussians, however, did not bother about 
Utrecht and marched around the city. All the can- 
non and the men defending the city were therefore 
useless. 

A terrible panic followed. One after the other 
city and village surrendered to the Prussians with- 
out an attempt at defense. Amsterdam inundated 
the country around its walls and in this way main- 
tained itself for a few days. The Hague, which pos- 
sessed no fortifications, was entirely at the mercy 
of the enemy. The estates thought of fleeing to 
Haarlem. But they could not decide this question 



LAST YEARS 395 

in time and kept on deliberating until the Prussians 
had surrounded their assembly. 

Within five days the Restoration had been com- 
pleted. A week later, when everything was over, 
William appeared in the Hague, loudly acclaimed 
by the population. He had done nothing himself 
to bring this change about, but he took the conse- 
quences of the Prussian invasion as his good right, 
as something which was plainly due him. He saw 
himself reinstated into all his old dignities and re- 
sumed his old comfortable existence in the palace of 
his ancestors. His wife now had all the satisfaction 
she wanted. The Prussians received half a million 
guilders for their trouble and returned home. 

The Restoration was not followed by any vio- 
lence towards the defeated party. There were no 
hangings, shootings, or executions of any sort. 
Everywhere the Patriotic Regents were dismissed 
and their places were taken by friends of the Prince. 

No attempt was made to change the constitu- 
tion of the land in such a way that a repetition of 
these events should be an impossibility. Every- 
thing was left as it was, and a return was made to 
the old system of patchwork and unsatisfactory, 
halfway measures. 

Neither did the Stadholder try to use the moment 
of victory to form a solid party around himself. 
No attempts were made to master the faithful lower 
classes into a strong Orangist organization. Many 
of the Regents who had had enough^ of this one 



396 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

experiment in hobnobbing with their tradespeople 
turned into strong conservatives and were willing 
to support the Prince. The Prince, however, was 
not willing to accept the support of those who once 
had been his open enemies and refused to have 
anything to do with them. 

And what became of the Patriots.'* They formed 
that most dangerous of things to the healthy life of 
a state, a class of perpetually discontented people. 
Thousands of them had so compromised themselves 
during the years of violent partisanship that they 
no longer felt happy at home. They left their 
country as voluntary exiles and went to France 
or to Belgium. All the little Belgian cities along 
that frontier, not to speak of Brussels, were full of 
Dutch immigrants, brooding on their woes and 
meditating on ways and means by which they 
could return to power. The Stadholder had been 
willing to drag a foreign power into the contro- 
versy in order to save himself. Why should they be 
particular about the measures which they chose to 
promote their own interests .^^ As a matter of fact 
they were not. More and more they allowed them- 
selves to come under the influence of the doctrines 
which they heard preached around them in France 
and in Belgium. The French Revolution was 
greeted as the daybreak of a new era by thousands 
of Dutch exiles. 

When France started upon her career of bringing 
the blessings of hberty to the other nations of Eu- 



LAST YEARS 397 

rope, these exiles were among the first to enlist in 
the French armies. From their fellow Patriots in 
the Republic they knew how little the Restoration 
had brought that peace and quiet which were so 
necessary to the country; now, on the other hand, 
the dullness of the Stadholder and his advisers had 
turned the momentary enthusiasm into frigid and 
lasting indifference. 

It is true that during the first year strong Prus- 
sian garrisons divided among the most rebellious 
cities kept the old partisanships down. But not 
only did those soldiers cost the country at large 
enormous sums, but by their brutal behavior they 
started among the people a desire for revenge upon 
the Prince whom they regarded as the cause of all 
their troubles, whom they held directly responsible 
for the events which had brought the country under 
foreign domination. 

Attempts to revive the trade and commerce of 
the Republic failed entirely. Too much territory 
had been lost during the prolonged war with Eng- 
land. Rivals with more up-to-date business meth- 
ods had taken the place of the Dutch merchant and 
could not be moved. 

For the army and fleet nothing was done. In 
despair the Republic was forced to return to its old 
treaty of friendship with England in order that, in 
case of need, it might receive support from the Brit- 
ish navy. A treaty with Prussia held out hope of 
military assistance on land. 



398 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

In a vague and desultory way some efforts were 
made to put the internal politics of the Republic on 
a better basis. But nothing was accomplished. The 
Regents, afraid lest there should be a repetition of 
the events which had just occurred, turned their 
faces firmly away from all manifestations of those 
modern ideas which were then becoming the com- 
mon possession of all Europe. 

All those who had something to lose, of what- 
ever creed or politics, now united to make a last 
stand against the new doctrines of those who had 
everything to gain. No longer did the Free Corps 
march, no longer did the Patriots discuss the salva- 
tion of the State in their political clubs. The Free 
Corps had been disbanded, the clubs had been 
closed. The newspapers no longer preached to the 
eager multitude, who had formerly taken in their 
editorials as the truth of a new gospel. The print- 
shop was locked up and the editor most likely lived 
in Dunkirk or Brussels waiting for the day of re- 
venge. Without a single man of character around 
whom the people could rally, without guidance, 
faced by as unproductive a conservatism as a na- 
tion has ever known, the days of the Republic were 
counted. 

On the 21st of January, 1793, Louis XVI was 
decapitated. On the 1st of February the French 
Republic declared war upon the Stadholder of Hol- 
land. A desperate but futile attempt was made to 
put the country into a state of defense. The battle 



LAST YEARS 399 

of Neerwinden in March put a momentary stop 
to the victorious campaign of the French. For the 
moment the RepubHc seemed saved once more by 
foreign intervention. But not for long. 

Two years later, in the fall of 1795, it pleased the 
Almighty Lord to do away with that which is per- 
haps the most pathetic of all earthly things, an 
institution which has outlived its usefulness. 



EPILOGUE 

And this is what happened to the Republic after 
it called in outsiders to settle its partisan quarrel. 
The French army walked to the Hague and the 
Stadholder fled on a miserable fishing-smack. He 
was sorry to lose his country, but he seemed a great 
deal more impressed by the inconvenience experi- 
enced in crossing the North Sea on board the ill- 
smelling craft. He reached the Enghsh coast in 
safety, and there we may say good-bye to him. After 
a few years he went to such of his German posses- 
sions as were left him by Mr. Bonaparte, and in 1806 
he died an exile in Brunswick. 

As for the Republic, it suffered an upheaval, the 
like of which it had not experienced since the mo- 
mentous day when it abjured its lawful sovereign 
and declared itself an independent state. For the 
next twenty years it was ruled by the Patriotic 
party in accordance with the wishes and desires of 
their masters in Paris. There was not a phase in the 
varied experience of Revolutionary France which 
was not copied in the history of the Republic be- 
tween the years 1795 and 1813. 

When France had a Jacobin constitution, the 
Republic had one, too. When in France the reac- 
tion against the extreme Revolutionary sentiments 
brought about a more conservative state of affairs, 



EPILOGUE 401 

the powers that ruled in the Hague felt themselves 
compelled to revise their own form of government 
until it should correspond to that of their great 
southern neighbors. 

Indeed, every absurdity of French revolutionary 
zeal found its counterpart in the Republic. What- 
ever was old was abolished, irrespective of its value. 
The country was re-divided, the political system 
was reorganized, century-old habits were put away, 
innovations were introduced, until nobody could 
longer find his way in the labyrinth of progressive 
improvements. Instead of the old decentralization, 
a new system of centralization was introduced so 
complete that all official business came to a stand- 
still. Constitutions came and constitutions went, 
until most people were so disgusted with the daily 
political upheavals that they were willing to accept 
any sort of stable government, provided it did away 
with the uncertainty and the jobbery of the pro- 
fessional politicians who were then endeavoring to 
bring about the millennium. And over and above 
all there was the cry for money, money, and still 
more money. The French Republic did not bring 
"Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality*' for nothing. 

The little affair of driving away the Stadholder, 
of delivering the free Batavian from the slavery of 
the Orange yoke, was debited against the Republic 
in the sum of one million guilders. This sum had 
to be paid in cash, too, preferably in gold. Also 
the Republic was requested to board and to clothe 



402 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

twenty-five thousand French soldiers; not twenty- 
five thousand a year, but twenty-five thousand as 
often as they came along, which happened the 
moment the first batch had been provided with 
the necessities of life and had been moved on to 
the next country. Incidental expenses on the part 
of these gentlemen were paid for with assignats, 
of which the Republic received a number of mil- 
lions which were wholly inconvertible. 
&> But that was only the beginning. Before the Re- 
public got through with France she had paid 276,- 
000,000 guilders in regular and 339,000,000 in ex- 
traordinary taxes. In plain English, the Republic 
was robbed of its last cent. During these many 
years, there was no trade, there was no commerce, 
there was no industry. On the sea the English 
held full sway, and Holland as a subordinate na- 
tion to France was obliged to consider England as 
her enemy. The last little remnants of Dutch trade 
were cleaned up by the British, and some 120,- 
000,000 guilders were lost by Dutch merchants, 
who still had ships on the ocean or interests abroad. 
The Dutch colonies all fell into British hands and 
not a penny of revenue came from Asia or America. 
The Hollanders never had been fond of life in 
the army. Their new masters did not inquire after 
their likes and dislikes, but put them into French 
uniforms and sent them over the face of the globe 
to fight their wars for them as best they could. 
Before Napoleon got through with his campaigns, 



EPILOGUE 403 

whole regiments of Dutch soldiers had been reduced 
to two or three men. An entire generation of young 
men were practically annihilated before peace once 
more came to the country. When it did come, in 
1813, the country was bankrupt, the people were 
hopeless, and in the town of Amsterdam one half 
of the entire population was kept alive by public 
charity. 

To recite the different constitutions in detail 
would be useless. The specialist on Dutch history 
can find them in the handbooks of Dutch political 
history. It may suffice to mention in a general way 
the changes which took place in the old Republic 
of the United Seven Netherlands. 

In 1795, that name was given up in favor of that 
of the Batavian Republic. The Batavian Republic 
would not have failed to please even the most ardent 
of the most extreme Jacobins. Unfortunately it did 
not please Mr. Bonaparte, when that gentleman 
experienced a change of heart and turned conserva- 
tive. Hence in 1801 a second constitution put the 
nation on a more conservative basis, reintroduced 
much that had joyfully been discarded a few years 
before, and provided an element of political toler- 
ance which had been absent during the first victori- 
ous years of Patriotic rule. 

In 1804, Napoleon became Emperor. He now 
frowned upon republics. The shirt-sleeve politi- 
cians disappeared from the meetings of the estates 
and the members once more enjoyed their old titles 



404 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

of "Their High-and-Mightinesses." Incidentally the 
constitution was changed for the third time, and at 
the head of everything was placed a raadpensionaris. 
It was the intention in Paris that His Excellency 
should be a sort of viceroy of His French Majesty. 
The first raadpensionaris was a most estimable 
functionary who loved his country dearly, but who 
lacked a sense of humor. After a year he was sent 
home and Napoleon's brother, Louis, was made 
King of the "Kingdom of Holland," and with the 
help of a fourth constitution was expected to govern 
the rich Netherlands to the best interests of his 
brother, the Emperor. Let it be said to the everlast- 
ing honor of Louis Napoleon that he did nothing 
of the sort. Earnestly, and not without success, he 
endeavored to rule his new kingdom in accordance 
with its own interests. During four years he con- 
ducted a sort of guerrilla warfare against his bro- 
ther. He could not positively disobey orders from 
Paris, but he tried as much as possible to mitigate 
the hardships which the French policies caused his 
country. In 1810 his game was up. Napoleon dis- 
missed his brother with as little circumstance as if 
he had been an unsatisfactory office boy, and on 
the 9th of July of that year the provinces along the 
mouth of the Rhine and the Maas became part of 
the great French Empire. 

In a foreign school the Hollanders now learned 
what they had not been able to learn of their own 
free will. They were hammered into one nation. 



EPILOGUE 405 

It is true that for several years they lost their inde- 
pendence and even their language, but all the advan- 
tages of a reasonably centralized government were 
brought home to them in a most forceful way. It 
was made clear to petty interests that nothing could 
be accomplished as long as one part refused to act 
for the benefit of all and held its own special inter- 
ests more sacred than those of the whole community. 

A more severe master than the Emperor Napo- 
leon it would be hard to imagine. When, in the 
course of human events, he was sent to cultivate the 
flowers around Longwood House and when most of 
his work was undone by little potentates who pos- 
sessed all of his vices and none of his virtues, there 
still remained the basis of the modern state as it had 
been laid down by the great French Emperor. When, 
in 1815, the principal European nations, assembled 
at Vienna, founded the Kingdom of the Nether- 
lands out of the former Republic and Belgium, 
the rudimentary work of changing the old anarchic 
republic into a modern nation had been accom- 
plished. 

The cost, however, had been terrific. Neither 
men nor money were left. Private initiative was 
dead. Of public spirit there was not a vestige. A 
few families, a handful of men, brought about the 
revolution which delivered the Dutch from the 
French yoke before it was freed by the Cossacks 
and the Prussians. The people at large were wholly 
apathetic. Dutch life became entirely contempla- 



406 FALL OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC 

tive. The Hollander became afraid of living. He 
preferred to retire into the back rooms of his house 
and find solace for his misery in meditations on the 
past life of his ancestors or on the future life of his 
own soul. Innovations of all sorts were unwelcome. 
Railroads were looked at with suspicion, since the 
canal boat provided for all the humble needs. A 
Chinese wall of conservative prejudice surrounded 
the country and kept out all foreign influence. It 
was almost two generations before a noticeable 
improvement took place. Fully fifty years went by 
before the deserted streets became once more filled 
with people who had the courage to take up life as 
they found it and to regard it with common sense, 
unmixed with the sentiments of dowdy dignity 
which during the period of poverty had become 
the ideal of a self-satisfied bourgeoisie. 

The first king of the new Holland, the son of the 
last stadholder, tried to revive the prosperity of his 
country by reverting to methods that were wholly 
out of date. His zeal and his good intentions did 
not make up for his lack of statesmanship. He 
failed, and his successors were forced to play the 
role of absolutely constitutional rulers. 

The Regents tried to regain their old influence. 
But their day was over. Except in ornamental posi- 
tions they played no further part. With a few ex- 
ceptions they had become impoverished, and were 
either forced back into business or lived a forgotten 
existence in some provincial town. 



EPILOGUE 407 

As for the Patriots, the men of 1815 were a very 
different set from those of twenty years before. They 
had learned a terrible lesson. They had tried to 
change human nature overnight, and they had dis- 
covered that this is a slow and tardy process which 
has to be handled with the utmost care and with 
infinite patience. 

All of the three old parties, Stadholder, Regents, 
and Patriots, with their old provincial and civic ani- 
mosities, disappeared in the new kingdom. For bet- 
ter or for worse, as fellow citizens of one undivided 
country, and with equal opportunity for all, they 
have since tried to work out their common salvation. 



THE END 



APPENDIX 

Stadholdeb Raadpensionaris 

1568, William I — the Silent — Jacob van den Eynde. 

of Nassau Dillenburg. Paulus Buys, 1572. 
1579, Union of Utrecht. 

1584, Maurice, head of Council Johan van Oldenbarneveldt. 
of State. 

1585, Leicester, Lord Lieutenant. Johan van Oldenbarneveldt. 
1587, Leicester leaves. 

1585-1625, Maurice, Stadholder Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, de- 

of Holland and Zeeland. capitated 1619. 

1590, of Utrecht and Overysel. Andries de Witt, 1619. 

1591, of Gelderland. Anthonie Duyck, 22 Jan., 1621. 
1620, of Drenthe and Gronin- 

gen. 

1625-16Jf.7, Frederic Henry, Stad- Adriaan Pauw, 12 April, 1631. 
holder of Holland and Zee- Jacob Cats, 3 July, 1636. 
land. 

1625, of Utrecht, Overysel, Gel- 
derland. 

1640, of Drenthe and Groningen. 

164.7-1650, William II, Stad- 
holder. 

1647, of Holland, Zeeland, 
Utrecht, Overysel, Gelder- 
land, Drenthe, and Gronin- 
gen. 

1650-1672, No Stadholder. Adriaan Pauw, 27 Sept., 1651. 

Johan de Witt, 23 July, 1653. 

1672-1702, William III, Stad- 
holder. 

1672, of Holland, Zeeland, Casper Fagel, 4 Aug., 1672. 

Utrecht, Overysel, Gelder- Anthony Heinsius, 20 June, 1689. 
land. 

1696, of Drenthe. 



410 



APPENDIX 



Stadholdeb 

1689, King of England. The di- 
rect line of William I dies 
out. 

1702-17It7, No Stadholder. 



m7-1751, William IV of Nas- 
sau Diez, Hereditary Stad- 
holder of the entire Repub- 
lic in 1747. 

1711, of Friesland. 

1718, of Groningen. 

1722, of GelderlandandDrenthe. 

1747, of Holland, Zeeland, 
Utrecht, and Overysel. 

1751-1759, Princess Anna, Gov- 
erness. 

1759-1766, Duke of Brunswick as 
guardian of the Prince. 

1766-1795, William V, Hered- 
itary Stadholder of the en- 
tire Republic. 



Raadpensionaris 



Isaak van Hoornbeek, 12 Sept., 

1720. 
Simon van Slingelandt, 17 July, 

1727. 
Anthony van der Heym, 15 

March, 1737. 
Jacob Gilles, 23 Sept., 1746. 
Pieter Steyn, 21 July, 1749. , 



Pieter van Bleiswyk, 28 Nov., 

1772. 
Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel, 

6 Dec, 1787. 



NOTES 

The map was made by the author from original sources. AH the avail- 
able maps were so filled with details about non-essential villages and ham- 
lets that the author, for the convenience of the reader, constructed a general 
map which shows only such places as are spoken about in the book itself. 
Should the reader feel inspired to make a closer study of the geographical his- 
tory of the Dutch RepubUc, the author refers him to the " Historische School- 
atlas," by H. Hettema, Jr., sixth edition, 1910, printed by W. E. J. Tjeenk 
Willink, ZwoUe. 

^ For the history of the invasion of the Republic by the French Revolu- 
tionary armies, see Colenbrander, De Bataafsche Republiek, pp. 42-49. Also 
Blok's Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Volk, vol. vi, p. 564; Nieuwe Neder- 
landsche Jaarhoeken, for the year 1795; and Vervolg of Wagenaars Vader- 
landsche Historie, xxvii. 

2 The text of the Union of Utrecht has been given, either in full or abridged, 
by most historians from Bor to Motley. The first separate edition is of 
August of the year 1579. The best edition is that of Haarlem, 1778. The full 
text and an excellent discussion thereon are found in Fruin's Staatsinstellingen, 
edited by Colenbrander, p. 363. 

' The abjuration took place in the Hague on the 26th of July, in the Big Hall 
of the Binnenhof, the hall now used for the joint sessions of the two chambers. 

* On the appointment of William I, see Fruin's Staatsinstellingen, pp. 
402-403. 

^ The history of the Estates, as well as a bibliography on the subject, will 
be found in Fruin, pp. 42-52. The provincial estates are discussed in detail, 
pp. 222-251; also pp. 209-213. The Estates General, pp. 177-193. 

6 For the Stadholder, see Fruin, pp. 204-209; 213-222. 

^ For the courts of justice in the different provinces, see Fruin, pp. 115- 
144; for the Admiralties, see pp. 199-204. 

8 For the office of the Raadpensionaris, see Fruin, pp. 72-73; 225-235, 
and 288-289. 

8 There is a large literature on the subject of the Regents : G. W. Vreede, 
Familieregeering ; Alberdink Thym, Het Patriciaat te Amsterdam ; de Witte 
van Citters, Contractenvan Correspondentie ; Elias, De vroedschap van Amster- 
dam, 1578-1795. See a curious map of the relations between the families in 
the different cities in the third volume of Oud Nederlandsche Steden, by 



412 NOTES 

Brugmans en Peters. See the article in volume i, chapter 4, of MuUer's 
Onze Gouden Eeuw. 

1" As to the power of William III as Stadholder, see Fruin, pp. 278-293. 

The beginning of this chapter (chapter ii), the scene in the market-place 
in Utrecht, has been taken bodily from Jorissen's De Republiek in de eerste 
Helft der achttiende Eeuw. To make up for this theft, the present author 
wishes to call the attention of the reader to the excellent essays of Jorissen, 
which, covering a great many subjects of Dutch and foreign history, are al- 
most the only ones in his language which can be read for pleasiu-e as well as 
for instruction. 

^^ Luzac, Holland's Rykdom. Groen van Prinsterer, Handboek der Geschie- 
denis van het Vaderland, paragraph 601, etc. Diferee, Geschiedenis van den 
Nederlandschen Handel, chap. vi. Diferee, De Fondsenhandel tydens de Re- 
publiek. Blok, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Volk, vol. vi, p. 105. 

^2 For statistics on the Sont trade, see Diferee, p. 177. 

^' For statistics on the decline of the trade with Spain, the Levant, and 
Russia, see Diferee, chap. vii. 

^* A detailed discussion on the numbers of men and ships engaged in the 
fisheries is given by Diferee, pp. 220-226. See also Beaujon, The History of 
Dutch Sea Fisheries, London, 1884. Dutch translation, 1885. 

^^ For the decline of the fisheries, see Diferee, p. 435, where the other 
sources are given. 

18 For the history of the Hollanders in the East Indies, see H. C. Rogge, 
" De eerste Nederlandsche handelsonderneming op Oost-Indie." Tydschrift 
van het Koninklyk Aardrykskundig Genootschap. 1895; O. van Rees, Geschie- 
denis der Staathuishoudkunde in Nederland ; J. K. J. de Jonge, De opkomst van 
het Nederlandsch gezag in Oost Indie. 1862; G. C. Klerk de Reus, Geschicht- 
licher Ueberblick der administrativen, rechtlichen und finantiellen Entwickelung 
der Niederlaendischen Ostindischen Compagnie. 1894; E. Laspeyres, Ge- 
schichte der volkswirtschaftliche Anschauungen der Niederlaender und ihrer 
Litteratur zur Zeit der Republik. 1863; J. A. van der Chys, Geschiedenis van de 
stichting der Vereenigde Oostindiscke Compagnie. 1857; J. E. Heeres, Hoe 
Stad en Lande een bewindhebbersplaats in de Ootindische Compagnie machtig 
werden. Bydr. vow vaderl. gesch. en oudheidkunde. 1893. See also the general 
article in Muller's Gouden Eeuw ; and for the methods of the company and 
conditions in the East, see the articles by N. P. van den Berg, Uit de dagen der 
Compagnde. 

1^ P. M. Netscher, Geschiedenis van de Kolonien, Essequibo, Demerary, en 
Berbice. 1888; M. G. de Boer, Memorie over den toestand der Westind. Com- 
pagnie in het jaar 1633. Bydr. en Mededeelingen Amst. Hist. Gen. 1900. See 
van Rees, Staathuishoudkunde, and Muller's Gouden Eeuw. 



NOTES 413 

^' J. C. de Jonge, Het Nederlandsche Zeewezen. Appendix to vol. iv. 

^* De Jonge, Zeewezen, vol. iv, pp. 231, 281. 

^° Lieven de Beaufort, Verhandeling van den Vryheid in de Burgerstaai. 
1737. 

^^ J. C. Overvoorde, Geschiedenis van het Postwezen in Nederland. Gives all 
the diflFerent postal routes in detail. 

22 MuUer, Gouden Eeuw, vol. iii, pp. 131, 139. 

2' Diferee, p. 355. W. C. Mees, Proeve eener Gesch. van het Bankwezen in 
Nederland. 

2^ Jorissen, Maryhen-Meu. 

26 Fruin's Staatsinstellingen, pp. 314-320. 

2® See Nyhoff, De Hertog van Brunswyk. More interesting is the criticism 
on Nyhoff by de Beaufort, Geschiedhundige Opstellen. 1893. 

27 The Diary is in the archives of the Castle of WoHenbuettel. The pro- 
fessor who wrote the Apology was Schloezer, of Goettingen, and his book 
appeared in 1786. 

28 The document is given in full in Nyhoff's Hertog van BrunstvyJc, p. 216. 

23 Knuttel, Catalogus van de Pamphkettenverzameling berustende in de 
Koninklyke Bibliotheek, vol. v, no. 19143. 

3» Knuttel, nos. 19152-19155. 

^^ For the pamphlets of this year, see Knuttel, nos. 19114-19168. 

'2 Vervolg op Wagenaar, vol. i, p. 200. 

^* De Jonge, Zeewezen, vol. iv, p. 382. 

^* For the negotiations between the Republic and the American delegates, 
see Nyhoff's Bydragen voor vaderlandsche geschiedenis en oudheidkunde. Derde 
deel. Derde stukje. 1842. 

^6 For this correspondence, see Brieven van van der Capellen, p. 123, etc. 

^^ De Jonge, Zeewezen, vol. iv, pp. 409-415. 

" Knuttel, nos. 19371-19389. 

'^ Bruckner, Catherina II, p. 391. 

^3 The letters are given in full, Wagenaar, Vervolg, vol. ii, pp. 427-437. 

" Knuttel, nos. 19421-19431. 

^* Brieven van van der Capellen, p. 220. 

^2 De Jonge, Zeewezen, vol. iv, p. 458. 

« Knuttel, nos. 19563-19564. 

" Knuttel, nos. 20200-20241. 

^6 For accounts of the Battle of Dogger Bank, see de Jonge, vol. iv, pp. 
514-541; Knuttel, nos. 19572-19629. 

*^ For a short autobiography, see his Brieven, edited by de Beaufort. 

" Knuttel, no. 19756. 

48 Knuttel, no. 19768. 

" Knuttel, nos. 19769-19778. 

5° Knuttel, no. 19864. See also, A. Loosjes, Een krachtig Libel, 1886, and 



414 NOTES 

the same author, Nog een en ander over het Pamphlet aan het volk van Neder- 

land, 1891. 

Bi Hartog, Een Heftig Patriot. 

B2 Davies, Memorials and Times of Ondaatje. 

w Knuttel, nos. 20352-20354. 

B4 For pamphlets against the Stadholder, see Knuttel, nos. 20142-20153. 

66 Knuttel, nos. 20333-20336. 

66 Knuttel, nos. 20570-20575. See also van der Kemp's large work in 
eight volumes, Magazyn van stukken tot de mUitaire Jurisdictie hetrekkelyk, 
1781-1783. 

" Knuttel, nos. 20622-20624. 

68 Knuttel, no. 20625. 

69 Knuttel, nos. 20603-20611. Wagenaar, Vervolg, vol. v, pp. 75-77. 
60 Knuttel, nos. 20576-20585; 21011-21025. 

*^ Hogendorp, Brieven en Gedenkschriften, vol. ii, pp. 133-134. 
62 Knuttel, nos. 20929-20947. See also a little booklet by te Lintum, Uit 
den Patriottentyd. 

6» Knuttel, nos. 20820-20832. 
6* Knuttel, nos. 21262-21277. 

65 Knuttel, nos. 21455-21463. 

66 Knuttel, nos. 21561-21573. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

General 

Wagenaah. Vaderlandsche Historie. The first twenty-one volumes 
were written by Wagenaar liimself . They bring the history down 
to the death of WiUiam IV. 

From 1790 to 1796 two volumes of Byvoegsels, Aanmerkingen en 
Naleezingen appeared, written by van Wyn, Pensionaris of Gouda, 
and some collaborators. 

From 1790 to 1791 there appeared three volumes of Aanteeken- 
ingen, by the Rev. Cleyn. 

From 1756 to 1767 Wagenaar's work was translated into 
German, and appeared, under the name of Algemeine Geschichte 
der Vereinigten Niederlande, in eight volumes, in Leipzig. 

Between the years 1757 and 1770 a French translation ap- 
peared, under the name of Histoire GSnerale des Provinces Unies, in 
Paris, also in eight volumes. 

In Dutch a second edition of the first four volumes appeared, 
1752-1759. A second edition of the whole work was issued in 
1770. This same edition was reprinted in 1782, '83, '84. A third 
and new edition appeared, 1790-1796. Ten abbreviated editions 
appeared between the years 1758 and 1800. It is not easy to keep 
the editions separate. 

Wagenaar himself died in 1773. Eight years later, between 1781 
and 1787, there appeared seventeen volumes under the title of 
Vervolg op Wagenaar, written by J. Munniks; 1788-1789, three 
volumes of Vervolg, by Loosjes; 1786-1811, forty-eight volumes of 
Vervolg, also by Loosjes. They continue the history down to the 
year 1806, and are written entirely from the point of view of the 
Patriots. From 1821 to 1826 there appeared four more volumes, 
which brought the history down to the year 1810. These last vol- 
umes were written by Stuart. 
Nederlandsche Jaarboeken, in forty-one volumes, were published 
between 1747 and 1765, and Nieuwe Nederlandsche Jaarboeken, in 



416 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

seventy-nine volumes, bringing the history down to the year 1798. 
They report in detail and month for month whatever happened in 
the Republic, and are a veritable mine of general, although often 
useless, information. 

Tegenwoordige Stoat der vereenigde Nederlanden. Twenty-three vol- 
umes, which appeared between 1739 and 1805, give an excellent 
description of the internal conditions of the different provinces 
during the latter half of the eighteenth century. 

Van der Aa. Biographisch woordenboek. 

L. D. Petit. Repertitorium der verkandelingen en bydragen betreffende 
de Geschiedenis des Vaderlands in tydschriften en mengelwerken tot op 
1906 verschenen. 

Bibliotheek van Nederlandsche Pamphletten in de Universiteits 
biblioiheek te Leiden. Two volumes. 

Knxtttel. Catalogus van de Pamphletten verzameling berustende in de 
Koninklyke Bibliotheek. For the latter half of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, consult volume v, den Haag, 1905. 

BiLDERDYK. GescMedenis des Vaderlands. Edited by Bilderdyk's 
friend Tydeman, in twelve volumes, 1832-1839. Written by an 
ardent partisan of the House of Orange and so full of prejudice 
that they are practically useless. 

Groen van Prinsterer. Handboek der Geschiedenis van het Vader- 
land. First edition, 1846; second edition in two volumes, 1852; 
third and new edition, 1872. A most excellent handbook. The 
author, who was an ardent Calvinist, loses himself sometimes in 
short sermons on the wickedness of the human race since the days 
of Voltaire and Rousseau, but his history remains a masterpiece, 
even without an index. 

P. J. Blok. Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Volk. Eight volumes. 
The best modern general history, written 1892-1910. German 
translation, 1902-1910, four volumes, down to 1648. Trans- 
lated into English and published by Putnams, New York. 

R. Fruin. Staatsinstellingen in Nederland tot 1795. Edited by H. 
T. Colenbrander. The only, and at the same time an excellent, 
review of the development of the political institutions of the 
Republic. 

Nyhoff. Staatkundige Geschiedenis van Nederland. 

E. G. Langemans. Recueil des Traitis conclus par le Royaume des 
Pays Bos. Sixteen volumes. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 417 

De Beroerten in de Vereenigde Nederlanden van den Jaare 1300 tot op 

den tegenwoordigen tyd. Amsterdam, 1788. 
Basnage. Description historique du gouvernement des Provinces 

Unies. La Haye, 1719. 
De Witte van Citters. Contracten van Correspondentie. Den Haag, 

1873-1875, 
J. J. DE Bassecoub Caan. Schets van de Regeeringsvorm van de Neder- 

landsche Repuhliek. 1862. 
G. W. Vreede. Familieregeering. 
Slothouwer. Oligarchisehe Mishruiken in het Friessche staais- 

hestuur. Utrecht, 1882. 
AiiBERDiNK Thym. Het Patriciaat te Amsterdam. 
Harinxma thoe Slooten. Verhandeling over het Stemrecht in Fries- 
land. Leiden, 1894. 
J. E. Elias. De Vroedschap van Amsterdam, 1578-1795. Haarlem, 

1903-1905. 

Newspapers 

Post van den Nederrhyn. 1780-1787. The best written and the best 
edited paper of the Patriots. It had most of the leading Patriots 
as secret collaborators. 

De Politieke Kruyer. 1782-1787. Patriotic. A decidedly yellow 
sheet. 

Janus, and Janus verrezen. 1787-1798. De Politieke Blixem. They 
were more in the line of violently patriotic pamphlets than news- 
papers. 

De Ouderwetsche Nederlandscke Patriot, edited by van Goens and 
started at the beginning of the Patriotic trouble to counteract the 
influence of the Patriotic papers. Well written and well edited, 
but without subscribers and bankrupt after a year. 

For general news see Luzac's Gazette de Lyede, which during 
that period was still regarded as one of the leading newspapers 
of Europe. 

Sautyn Kluit has made a special study of these newspapers and 
has published his results in the Bydragen voor Vaderlandsche 
Geschiedenis en Ovdheidkunde in 1868, '69, '75, '77, '80, and '82. 
See also his "Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Dagbladpers," 
printed in the Bydragen tot de Geschiedenis van den Nederlandschen 
Boekhandel, vol. vii. 



418 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

See, also, a special article on the newspapers of Utrecht in the 
Bydragen en Mededeelingen van het Utrechtsch Historisch Genoot- 
schap, 1878. 

Commercial History 

The principal work for the history of commerce in the latter half of 
the eighteenth century is Luzac. Holland's Rykdom. Ley den, 
1780-1783, in four volumes; second edition, 1801. Luzac got most 
of his data from Accarias de la Serionne's La Richesse de la 
Hollande. Translated into German, Die Handlung von Holland. 
Leipzig, 1771. 

O. VAN Rees. Geschiedenis der Staathuishondkunde in Nederland. 

Lemoine de l'Espine. De Koophandel van Amsterdam. 

ScHELTEMA. Rusland en de Nederlanden. Four volumes. 

A. Beaujon. Overzicht van de Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche 
Zeevisschery. Leiden, 1885. 

W. Bunk. Staathuishoudkundige geschiedenis van den Amsterdam- 
schen graanhandel. Amsterdam, 1856. 

Jan Wagenaar. Amsterdam in zyn opkom^t enz. beschreven. Am- 
sterdam, 1765, three volumes. Finished, 1786, in thirteen volumes, 

W. VAN Ravesteyn, Jr. Ondersoekingen over de economische en 
sociale wetgeving en ontwikkeling van Amsterdam gedurende de 16de 
en het eerste kwart der 17 de eeuw. Amsterdam, 1906. 

Brugman's article, "Handel en Nyverheid," in Amsterdam in de 
zeventiende eeuw. 

The articles on Commerce and Trade in L. P. Muller, Onze 
Gouden Eeuw, vol. iii. 

W. Hetd. Histoire du Commerce du Levant. Leipzig, 1885-1886, in 
two volumes. 

O. Pringsheim. Beitrdge zur vnrtschaftlichen Entwickelungsgeschichte 
der vereinigten Niederlande im 17 und 18 Jahrhundert. Leipzig, 1890. 

E. Laspeyres. Geschichte der Volkswirtschaftlichen Anschauungen 
der Niederldnder und ihrer literatur zur Zeit der Republik. Leipzig, 
1863. 

N. G. PiERSON. "Beschouwingen over Holland's welvaart by de 
Engelsche Economisten der Zeventiende Eeuw," in Verspreide 
Economische geschriften. Haarlem, 1910. 

BoGAERDE TER Brugge. Essai sur Vlmportance du commerce dans 
les Pays Bas. 1845. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY ' 419 

H. C. DiFEREE. De Geschiedenis van den Nederlandschen Handel. 
, Amsterdam, 1908. A good book which would be better with an 

index. 

De Fondsenhandel iydens de Repuhliek. Amsterdam, 1908. 
Th. Stuabt. "De Amsterdamsche Makelaardy," Bydragen tot de 

geschiedenis van onze Handelswetgeving. Amsterdam, 1879. 

CoLONiAii History 

J. K. J. DE JoNGE. De OpJcomst van het Nederlandsch Gezag in Oost 

Indie. 1862-1888. 
J. C. DE JoNGE. Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen. Five 

volumes. The Hague, 1828-1862. The standard work about the 

Dutch fleet and its activity in the colonies and other parts of the 

globe. 
Meinsma. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche Oostinidsche Bezittingen. 

Delft, 1872. 
Kleek de Reus. Geschichtlicher Ueberblick der Niederldndischen. 

Ostindischen Compagnie. Batavia, 1894. 
J. A. VAN DER Chys. Gcsckiedenis van de Stichting der Vereenigde 

Oostindische Compagnie. Leiden, 1857. 
O. VAN Rees. Geschiedenis der Staathuishoudkunde in Nederland, 

vol. II. 
A. E. Sayous. "Le fractionemen du capital social de la Compagnie 

Neerlandaise des Indes Orientales au XVII et XVIII siecles," 

Nouv. Rev. Hist, de droit Franqais et Etranger. 1901. 
A. Zimmermann. Die Kolonialpolitik der Niederldnder. Berlin, 

1903. 
S. MuLLER, FzN. Geschiedenis der Noordsche Compagnie. Utrecht, 

1874. 
G. W. Kernkamp. "Stukken over de Noordsche Compagnie," in 

Bydragen en Mededeelingen. Historisch Genootschap. Amsterdam, 

1898, vol. XIX. 
D. W. J. C. VAN Lynden. De Commercio societatis Indies Orientalis. 

Schoonhoven, 1839. 
M. L. VAN Deventer. Geschiedenis der Nederlanders op Java. 
BoNASSiEUx. Les Grands Compagnies. 1892. 

Kampen. Geschiedenis der Nederlanders buiten Europa. 1831-1833. 
See also the Bibliography in S. van Bbakel, De HoUandsche 

Handelscompagnien der 17 de eeuw. 



420 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

History of Social Life 

Le Francq van Berkhey. Histoire naturelle 1782. By the sam^j 

author, Natuurlyke Histoire van Holland. 1769-1779. la eleven 

volumes. 
HoFDYK. 0ns Voorgeslacht. Six volumes. Haarlem. 
G. D. J. ScHOTEL. Het Maatschappelyk leven onzer Voorvaderen in de 

zeventiende eeuw. Haarlem, 1869. 
Van Lennep, Moll en ter Gouw. Nederlands Geschiedenis en 

Volksleven. Leiden, 1868. 
Van Ollefen en Barker. Nederlandsche Stad en Dorpheschryver. 

Amsterdam, 1793-1801, in eight volumes. 
The article on "Social Life" in P. L. MuUer's Onze Gouden Eeuw. 
L. Ejstappert. Het geestelyk leven onzer voorvaderen in de 18de eeuw. 
Brugmans en Peters. Oud Nederlandsche steden. 
K. Sluyterman. Oude binnenhuizen in Nederland. 
W. Vogelsang. Anciens meubles Hollandais. 
J. Dirks. De Noord Nederlandsche gildepenningen wetenschappelyh 

en historisch beschreven en afgebeeld. Haarlem, 1878-1879. 
H. BLA.VARD. Histoire de la Faience de Delft. 
D. F. ScHEURLEER. Het Muziekleven in Nederland in de tweede helft 

der 18de eeuw in verband met Mozarts verblyf aldaar. Den Haag, 

1909. Two volumes. 
Diderot. Voyage en Hollande, in his complete works. 
Cloet. Voyage pittoresque dans le Royaume des Pays Bas. 1821. 
Anne Radcliffe. Journey through Holland. 1794. 
Carr. Tour through Holland. London, 1807. 
Grabner. Briefe iiber die vereinigten Niederlaende. Gotha, 1792. 

The political and social history of the Republic as described in 
; prints and engravings has been minutely described in the Atlas van 
•^ Stolk. 

The Republic and Joseph H 

Arneth. Joseph II. Vienna, 1872. 

Schlitter. Die Regierung Josefs II in de Oesterreichischen Nieder- 

landen. Vienna, 1900. 
CoLENBRANDER. De Bslgische Omwenteling. Den Haag, 1905. 
Bruyssel. Histoire politique de VEscaut. 
Magnette. Joseph II et la LibertS de VEscaut. Liege, 1892. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 421 

HuBEBT. Le voyage de Joseph II en Belgique. Brussels, 1900. 

F. VAN HoGENDORP. De Flumine Scaldi Clauso. Leiden, 1837. 

The Patriotic Troubles 

General History, Memoirs, and Correspondences 
The standard work for tlie general history of this period is 

H. T. CoLENBRANDER. De PatrioUentyd. Band I, 1776-1784. Den 
Haag, 1897. Band 11, 1784-1786. Den Haag, 1898. Band III, 

i 1786-1787. Den Haag, 1899. 

This history is continued in a more popular form in 

H. T. CoLENBRANDER. De Bataafscke Republiek. Amsterdam, 1908. 

De Peyster. Les Troubles de la Hollande a la veille de la RSvolution 
frangaise. Paris, 1905. 

Caillard. Memoires sur la Revolution de Hollande. 

Mandrillon. Memoire pour servir a Vhistoire de la RSvolution des 
Provinces Unies. Paris, 1791. 

CoQUELLE. L' Alliance franco-hollandaise. 1902. 

SoREL. L' Europe et la Revolution frangaise. 1885-1904. 

Pierre de Witt. Une invasion prussienne en Hollande. Paris, 1886. 

MiRABEAU. Aux bataves sur le Stadhouderat. 1788. 

Ellis. History of the Late Revolution of the Dutch Republic. London, 
1790. 

Maddison. Introduction to the History of the Dutch Republic, reckon- 
ing from the Year 1777. London, 1788. 

G. and J. Robinson. History of the Internal Affairs of the United 
Provinces from 1780 to 1787. London, 1787. 

J. K. J. DE JoNGE. Documents politiques sur les RSvolutions de 1787 et 

1797. Den Haag, 1857. 
D. M. M. d'Yvoy van Mydrecht. Frankryks invloed op de bui- 
l^tenlandsche aangelegenhedendervoormaligenederlandsche Republiek. 

Arnhem, 1858. 
H. A. Weststrate. Gelderland in de Patriottentyd. Arnhem, 1903. 
Bruinvis. Het Patriotismus te Alkmaar. Alkmaar, 1886. 
Racer. Overyselsche gedenkstukken. Leiden, 1781-1787. 
Von Pfatj. Geschichte des Preussischen Feldzuges in Holland. Berlin, 

1790. Translated into French and Dutch, 1792. 
Trotschke. Der Preu^siche Feldzug in der Provinz Holland. Berlin, 
V 1873. An English review of this book appeared in the Edinburgh 

Review, in 1875. 



422 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Van deb Aa. Het leven Willem V. In four volumes. 1805. Abso- 
lutely useless. The same can be said of the German edition by 
Schenck. Stuttgart, 1854. 

F. DE Bas. Brieven van Willem V. aan Baron van Lynden van Bit- 
terswyk. Den Haag, 1893. 

Nabek. Prinses Wilhelmina. Amsterdam, 1908. 
Carolina van Oranje. Haarlem, 1910. 

J. VAN Lennep. Het leven van Mr. Cornelis van Lennep en Mr, David 
Jacob van Lennep. Amsterdam, 1865. A masterpiece of biography 
which presents a better picture of the life of the last fifty years of 
the eighteenth century than any of the other histories or memoirs. 
The letters of van Goens were edited by de Beaufort, "Brieven 
aan R. M. van Goens en onuitgegeven stukken hem betreflfende,'* 
two volumes in Werken van het Utrecktsch Historisch Genoot- 
sckap. 1884. De Beaufort also wrote an essay on Rycklof 
Michiel van Goens in his Geschiedkundige Opstellen. 

Many letters of van Hogendorp are collected in Brieven en 
gedenkschriften van Gyshert Karel van Hogendorp, edited by F. van 
Hogendorp. Den Haag, 1866, in two volxmaes. 

J. A. Sillem. Dirk van Hogendorp. 

The letters of van der Capellen were edited by de Beaufort, 
"Brieven van en aan Joan Derk van der Capellen van de Poll," in 
the Werken van het Utrecktsch Historisch Genootschap. 1879. 
See also for van der Capellen: — 

W. W. VAN DEK Mexjlen. "Brieven van Joan Derk van der Capellen 
tot den Poll," in Bydragen en Mededeelingen Utrecktsch Historisch 
Genootschap. 1907, and "Brieven van C. J. van Beyma aan 
Capellen van de Poll." Leeuwarden, 1894. Van der Meulen 
wrote an article "Een en ander over van der Capellen tot de Pol en 
zyn Aanhang," in Geschiedkundige opstellen uitgegeven ter eere van 
H. C. Rogge. Leiden, Sythoff. 

Joachim Rendorp, one of the Burgomasters of Amsterdam, wrote 
his memoirs under the title of Memorien dienende tot opheldering 
van het geheurde gedurende den laatsten Engelschen oorlog. Amster- 
dam, 1792. See also. Backer, Leven van Mr. Joachim Rendorp. 
Amsterdam, 1858. 

P. J. Quint Ondaatje. Bydragen tot de gesehiedenis der omwenteling 
van 1878. Duinkerken, 1792. The life of Ondaatje was written by 
Mrs. Davies, Memorials and Times of Peter Philip Juriaan Quini 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 423 

Ondaatje, and published in the Werken van het Utrechtsch His- 
torisch Genootschap. 1870. 

J. Hartog wrote an article on van der Kemp in his Uit de Dagen 
der Patriotten. The life of van der Kemp was written by Fairchild. 
New York, 1893. 

The life of Valckenaer was written by J. A. Sillem, Het Leven van 
Mr. Johan Valckenaer, 1759-1821. Amsterdam, 1883. 

Slingelandt wrote his own Staatkundige geschriften, in five vol- 
umes. Amsterdam, 1784-1785. 

Jorissen edited the "Memorien van Mr. Diederik van Bleis- 
wyk," Werken van het Utrechtsch Historisch Genootschap. 1887. 

L. P. van de Spiegel edited his own Brieven en Negotiatien. Am- 
sterdam, 1803. See further, G. W. Vreede, L. P. van de Spiegel en 
zyn Tydgenooten. 1874-1877. 

G. W. Vbeede. Brieven van en aan van de Spiegel over de Acte van 
Consulentschap. Den Haag, 1873. 

WiCHERS. De Secreete negotiatienvan L. P. vande Spiegel en Auckland 
met Dumouriez. Den Haag, 1897. 

M. J. K. J. DE JoNGE. MSmoires et Correspondances du Baron van 
Kinckel. Den Haag, 1857. 

Te Lintum. Uit den Patriottentyd. Rotterdam, 1908. 

A. W. Engelen(?) Gedenkschriften van een voornaam Nederlandsch 
heamte. Tiel, 1882. 

Diaries and Correspondence of John Harris, Lord Malmeshury. Four 
volumes. London, 1845. 

Journal and Correspondence of Lord Auckland. Four volumes. Lon- 
don, 1861. 

Von Goebtz. Historische und Politische Denkwiirdigkeiten. Two 

\ volumes. Stuttgart, 1827. 

See further the short essays by de Beaufort in Oranje en de 
Democratic. Hartog, De Patriotten en Oranje. Uit de Dagen der 
Patriotten. Jorissen, De Republiek in de eerste helft der achttiende 
eeuw; De Patriottentyd; Maryken Meu, and Willem V. 



INDEX 



Aardenburg, taken by the French, 

130. 
Acte van Consulentschap, drawn 
up secretly by William V and 
Duke of Brunswick, 169; pub- 
lished, 369. 
Adams, John, arrives in the Re- 
^ public, 279; officially recog- 
^ nized as American minister, 

284. 
Affray, Count d', French ambas- 
1^ sador in the Hague,. 154; re- 
called, 209. 
Aix-les-Bains, meeting-place for 
, American delegate and repre- 
i sentative from Amsterdam, 

225. 
America, United States of, inter- 
est in the American Revolu- 
tion in Holland, 177; hope of 
commercial advantages, 179; 
smuggling trade between 
America and Holland, 180; 
pamphlets on the American 
Revolution, 203; American 
flag saluted in St. Eustatius, 
215; American delegates in 
Paris start correspondence 
with Holland, 219; secret 
treaty between America and 
town of Amsterdam discovered 
by British government, 253; 
independence recognized by 
England, 284; obtains Dutch 



loan, 285; American political 
system example to many Pa- 
triots, 359. 

Amersfoort, town in Utrecht, 
Patriotic riots in, 390. 

Amsterdam, proposes to sell Scot- 
tish Brigade, 137; continues 
negotiations with American 
delegates in Paris, 222; its dif- 
ficult geographical situation, 
230; its secret treaty with 
America is discovered by Brit- 
ish government, 253; England 
asks that Amsterdam be pun- 
ished, 259; attitude of Amster- 
dam, 260; its acts officially dis- 
approved by the Estates, 262; 
suggests establishment of re- 
sponsible ministry, 275; de- 
mands dismissal of Duke of 
Brunswick, 277; the Patriots 
in, 301 ; their attitude towards 
the Stadholder, 302; attacked 
by van Goens, 310; defends 
itself against his attacks, 316; 
renewed attacks by van 
Goens, 316. 

Anna, oldest daughter of George 
n of England, wife of William 
IV, succeeds her husband, 142; 
her character, 143; trouble 
with her mother-in-law, 144; 
tries to institute reforms, 152; 
unpopular, 155; death, 156. 



426 



INDEX 



Armed Neutrality, origin of, 250; 
Republic decides to join, 251, 
263; decision of Republic to 
join, too late, and not admit- 
ted, 273. 

Austrian Succession, War of the, 
120. 

Baltic, trade on, 56, 57; decline in 
trade, 269; stopped, 275. 

Banks, earliest, in the Republic, 
91. 

Baptists, position of, in the Re- 
public, 96. 

Barriere, fortifications of the 
Austrian, 283. 

Bentinck van Rhoon, Count Will- 
iam, adviser of the Princess 
Anna, 146. 

Bentinck van Rhoon, Count Will- 
iam Gustavus Frederic, leader 
of the Orangistic Party under 

' William V, 296. 

Berckel, Engelbert Frangois van, 

, Pensionaris of Amsterdam, 
conducts correspondence with 
American delegates in Paris, 
223; leader of the Patriots in 
the Estates of Holland, 301; 
wants to be Raadpensionaris, 
341; leads attack upon mili- 
tary jurisdiction, 345; organ- 
izes attack on Stadholder 
after St. Nicholas riots, 347; 
delegated to ask Stadholder 
about Acte van Consulentschap, 
370. 

Berckel, Pieter Johan van, bro- 
^^the^ of Engelbert Frangois, 



first Dutch minister to Amer- 
ica, 285. 

Bylandt, Count Frederic Sigis- 
mund van, captain in the 
Dutch navy, commander of 
fleet at St. Eustatius, 271. 

Bylandt, Count Louis van, 
Dutch rear-admiral, com- 
mands Dutch fleet protecting 
merchantmen, 240; is stopped 
with his fleet near the Isle of 
Wight, 242; returns to Holland 
to report, 246. 

Bleiswyk, Pieter van, Raadpen- 
sionaris of Holland, draws up 
Acte van Consulentschap, 169; 
receives letters sent by Amer- 
ican delegates in Paris, 220; 
informs Stadholder of corre- 
spondence, 221; his position 
under William V, 296; term of 
ofl&ce expires, 341; is contin- 
ued in office, 342. 

Brest, plan to send Dutch fleet 
to, to cooperate with French 
fleet, 284. 

Brunswick, Charles William Fer- 
dinand, reigning Duke of, 
commands Prussian troops re- 
storing William V, 394. 

Brunswick, Louis Ernst, Duke 
of, early career of, 147; charac- 
ter of, 148; personal appear- 
ance of, 149; comes to the Re- 
public, 150; relations of, with 
Princess Anna, 152; guardian 
of William V, 158 ; commander- 
in-chief of army and navy, 
158; receives grants from the 



INDEX 



427 



Estates for his services, 163; 
reorganizes William's finances, 
161; makes William sign Acte 
van Consulentsckap, 169; at- 
tacked by Amsterdam, 276; 
tries in vain to defend him- 
self, 277; leaves Holland, 278; 
attacked in Dumoulin Report, 
363; leaves the Republic, 
372. 

Cambrai, Congress of, 118. 

Capellen, Joan Derek van der, 
van de Poll, speech on Scottish 
Brigade, 185; character of, 
189; translates Richard Price's 
pamphlet, Essay on Nature of 
Civil Liberty, 195; receives 
thanks of Americans, 198; cor- 
responds with Paul Jones, 236; 
correspondence of, with Amer- 
ican statesmen, discovered by 
British, 252; invests money in 
America, 280; author of To the 
People of the Netherlands, 323; 
pamphlet confiscated, 324; 
contents of pamphlet, 327; re- 
moved from Estates of Over- 
ysel, 339; readmitted, 340; his 
readmission celebrated, 353; 
death of, 372. 

Catholics, position of, in Repub- 
lic, 96. 

City life in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, 100. 

Clergy, position of, in the old Re- 
pubUc, 107; under William V, 
298. 

Collections, of paintings and val- 



uable curiosities, interest in, 
113. 

Constitution, diflFerent constitu- 
tions of the Batavian Repub- 
lic, 403. 

Contraband of war, 227. 

Corvees, in Overysel, attacked 
by Capellen, 339. 

Crisis, frequency of financial 
crises, 49. 

Daendels, Herman Willem, 
Dutch Patriot, leader of riot in 
Hattem, 387. 

Danckelmann, Baroness von, 
comes to Holland with Prin- 
cess Wilhelmina, 172. 

Deane, Silas, American delegate 
in Europe, writes to the Re- 
public, 219. 

Doggersbank, battle of, 281. 

Dordrecht, Patriots in, 304; re- 
fuses longer to recognize right 
of appointment, 343. 

Dumas, unofficial agent of Amer- 
icans in Republic, 223; serves 
as go-between in negotiations 
with Amsterdam, 224. 

Dumoulin, Dutch general and 
famous engineer, his report on 
state of fortifications, 363. 

East India Company, formation 
of , 61 ; losses of, in English war, 
270. 

Editorials, first use of, 334. 

Elburg, village in Gelderland, 
riots in, 387. 

Elzevier, captain of Patriotic 



428 



INDEX 



: militia in Rotterdam, meets 
with trouble, 365-367. 

Emigrants, Patriotic, in Bel- 
gium, 396. 

England, asks Republic for assist- 
ance, 127, 153; request refused 
by Republic, 155; complains 
severely about smuggling on 
St. Eustatius, 180; dispute of, 
with Republic about Scottish 
Brigade, 184; renews com- 
plaint about smuggling, 212; 
demands recall of governor of 
St. Eustatius, 216; difficulties 
with, about contraband of war, 
227; asks assistance, 232; de- 
clares war on Republic, 265; 
captures Dutch ships, 267; cap- 
tures St. Eustatius, 270; tries 
repeatedly to make peace, 280; 
fights last battle with Repub- 
lic, 281; recognizes America, 
285 ; makes peace with the Re- 
public, 286; former influence 

^ of, in Republic lost, 287. 

Estates General, their origin, 23. 

Estates, provincial, their origin 
and formation, 19. 

St. Eustatius, smuggling in, with 
America, 180; protests of Eng- 
land against, 181; taken by 
English, 271. 

Feudalism, in the Low Countries, 
6. 

Fielding, Commodore Charles, 
stops Dutch fleet under van 
Bylandt, 242; takes Dutch 
ships to Portsmouth, 244. 



Fisheries, 59. 

Fleet, neglect of, after 1715, 77; 
comparative strength of dif- 
ferent fleets, 218. 

France, invades Dutch Flanders, 
128; takes Dutch territory, 
129; tries to gain influence in 
Republic, 209; secret treaty 
with America, 217; strength of 
army and navy, 218; tries to 
influence Republic in matter 
of contraband of war, 228; 
threatens to revoke favorable 
tariff laws, 229; makes treaty 
with Republic, 287; refuses to 
help Republic against Prussia, 
392; declares war upon the Re- 
public, 398. 

Franklin, Benjamin, correspond- 
ence of, with the Republic, 219. 

Frederic Henry, Stadholder of 
Holland, 33. 

Frederick the Great, 120. 

Frederick William, King of Prus- 
sia, demands apology for treat- 
ment of Princess Wilhelmina, 
392; threatens invasion, 393; 
collects army of 20,000 men, 
393; sends ultimatum, 394; in- 
vades Republic, 394. 

Free Corps, formation of, 354; 
popular, 355; in Utrecht and 
Rotterdam, 356; in Amster- 
dam, 356; open their ranks to 
dissenters, 357; manoeuvres of, 
358; numbers, 376; Regents 
try to disband them, 386; run 
away before Prussians, 394. ^ 

Friesland, Patriots in, 307. - 



INDEX 



429 



Gelderland, Patriots in, 305. 

Gyselaer, Cornelis de, Pension- 
aris of Dordrecht, 341; leader 
of Patriotic party meetings, 
353; brings Dumoulin Report, 
363; delegated to ask Stad- 
holder about Acte van Consu- 
lentschap, 370; again leads Pa- 
triotic meeting, 383; attacks 
Stadholder in Estates of Hol- 
land, 389. 

Goens, Rycklof Micliiel van, birth 
of, 310; professor in Utrecht, 
311; quarrel of, with Hofstede, 
311; attacks Amsterdam, 314; 
contents of his pamphlets, 315; 
second pamphlet called Seven 
Villages in Flames, 316; con- 
tents, 316; starts newspaper, 
320; attacked from all sides, 
321; deserted by Stadholder, 
321; leaves country, 322; 
death, 322. 

GraeflE de, appointed governor 
of St. Eustatius, as successor 
of Heyliger, 198; salutes the 
American flag, 215; recalled, 
216; returns to St. Eustatius, 
216. 

Grippe, first epidemic of, in Re- 
public, 348. 

Guilds, loss of importance of, 135. 

Haarlem, Patriots in, 304. 
Hague, the, social life in, under 

William V, 293; St. Nicholas 

riots, 345. 
Haren, Onno Zwier van, leader of 

prominent Frisian family, sup- 



porters of the Stadholder, 
160. 

Hattem, village in Gelderland, 
riots in, 387. 

Heyliger, governor of St. Eusta- 
tius, 198; recalled, 198. 

Helder, naval port in Holland, 231 . 

Hoen, Pieter 't, editor of Post of 
the Lower Rhine, 335. 

Hofstede, leader of the Dutch 
clergy under William V, at- 
tacks van Goens, 311; attacks 
van der Marck, 325. 

Hood, Sir Samuel, commander 
under Rodney at St. Eusta- 
tius, 270. 

Investments in foreign and do- 
mestic securities, 214. 

Jews, interest of, in politics, 307. 

Jones, John Paul, arrives in 
Helder, 233; his exploits in 
North Sea, 233; correspond- 
ence of, with Capellen, 236; 
difficulty about landing his 
wounded, 237; repairs ships, 
239; makes popular tour 
through Republic, 239; leaves 
Republic, 240; what van Goens 
thought about him, 315. 

Joseph n, visits Republic, 282; 
attacks Barriere, 283; his de- 
mands, 286; threatens Repub- 
lic, 287; allows himself to be 
bought off, 287. 

Kaat Mossel, 364. 

Kemp, Francis Adrian van der. 



430 



INDEX 



Dutch clergyman, leader of the 
Patriots, 324; his studies, 325; 
his career, 326; political activi- 
ties of, 332; interest of, in at- 
tack upon military jurisdiction, 
345; leads riots in Wyk-by- 
Duurstede, 387. 

Keppel, British captain, takes 
Henry Laurens and his Dutch 
papers on board the Mercurius, 
253. 

Kingdom of Holland, 404. 

Laurens, Henry, taken prisoner 
on way to Holland, 253. 

Learned societies, 113. 

Lee, Arthur, corresponds with 
Republic, 219. 

Lee, William, meets Amsterdam 
delegate in Aix-les-Bains, 225. 

Leyden, celebration of relief of, in 
1574, 177. 

Louis Napoleon, King of Hol- 
land, 404. 

Lower classes, and their support 
of the Stadholder, 298. 

Lutherans, their position in the 
Republic, 96. 

Marck, Professor van der, at- 
tacked by Hofstede, 325. ?; 

Mary Louise, of Hesse-Cassel, 
mother of WiUiam V, 122; 
grandmother of William V, 
159; is Stadholder of Friesland 
during minority of William V, 
159; tries to appoint William's 
sister as Regent, 159. 

Maria Theresa, 120. 



Maurice, second Stadholder of 
the Republic, 32. 

Middle Ages, the Low Countries 
during, 4. 

Middle classes, daily life of, 
100. 

Militia, formation of, 36; demand 
of reforms in, 136. 

Military jurisdiction, attacked 
by Patriots, 345. 

Monetary system of the Repub- 
lic, 90. 

Nassau la Leek, Count of, writer 
on American Revolution, 200. 

Neerwinden, battle of, 399. 

Neufville, Jean de, Amsterdam 
merchant, sent to Aix-les- 
Bains to negotiate with Amer- 
ican delegate, 225; returns 
to Amsterdam with concept 
treaty, 226; his treaty dis- 
covered by English, 254; its 
contents, 255. 

Newspapers, 114. 

Nymegen, residence of William 
V, 385. 

Nobility, lead at first in war with 
Spain, 12; estranged from 
House of Orange, 143. 

Old-Fashioned Dutch Patriot, Or- 
angistic paper started by van 
Goens, 320. 

Ondaatje, Pieter Philip Jurriaan 
Quint, his origin and studies, 
335; leader of Utrecht riots, 
381. 

Overysel, Patriots in, 306. 



INDEX 



431 



Paddenberg, printer of Post of the 
Lower Rhine, 335; sued for li- 
bel, 337; found not guilty, 338. 

Paine, Thomas, books of, trans- 
lated into French in Amster- 
dam, 202. 

Parker, Sir Hyde, commander of 
British fleet at Doggersbank, 
281. 

Patriotic party, its composition, 
300; in Amsterdam, 301; in 
Rotterdam, 303; in Haarlem 
and Dordrecht, 304; in Zee- 
land, 304; in Utrecht, 305; in 
Gelderland, 305; in Overysel, 
306; in Friesland, 307; meeting 
of Patriots, 353; political pro- 
gramme, 359; second meeting, 
383; Patriotic riots in Amers- 
foort, 387; in Hattem en El- 
burg, 387; fortification of 
Utrecht by Patriots, 390; col- 
lapse of the party, 396; emi- 
gration of the leaders of, 396. 

Paulus, Pieter, tries to bring 
about compromise between 
Stadholder and Patriots, 297; 
lives in Rotterdam, 303. 

Philosophy, study of philosophy 
in the Republic, 112. 

Polish Succession, War of the, 
118. 

Political clubs, 358. 

Postal system, 87; reforms in, de- 
manded, 137. 

Post of the Lower Rhine, Patriotic 
paper, 320; attacks Stadholder, 
335; mentions existence of Acte 
van Consulentschap, 370. 



Price, Richard, his Essay on Na- 
ture of Civil Liberty, translated 
by Capellen, 195. 

Raadpensionaris, power of the'of- 
fice, 27, 29. 

Reaction, in favor of the Stad- 
holder, 397. 

Reformation, in the Low Coun- 
tries, 9. 

Regents, origin and power of, 29; 
social life of, 93. 

Regulation of Utrecht, 377. 

Restoration of William V by the 
Prussians, 394. 

Rodney, Sir George Bridges, 
takes St. Eustatius, 270. 

Rotterdam, favors appointment 
of WiUiam IV, 131; Patriots in 
Rotterdam, 303; opposition to 
power of the Stadholder, 343; 
Patriotic troubles, 350; Kaat 
Mossel riots, 364. 

Russia, trade with, 58; Armed 
Neutrality, 250, 273. 

St. Nicholas riots in the Hague, 
346. 

Schoonhoven, opposes power of 
Stadholder, 343. 

Scottish Brigade, origin of, 183; 
England asks for loan of Bri- 
gade, 184; discussion of this 
request by Estates, 185; Ca- 
pellen attacks proposal, 185; 
remains in Holland, 188. 

Seven Years' War, 153. 

Spain declares war upon Eng- 
land, 232. 



432 



INDEX 



Stadholder, power of, and origin 
of office, 24-30. See William 
IV and William V. 

Surinam, history of, 74; Amer- 
ican ship captured in, 212. 

Taxes, demand for reform of, 136 ; 
amount paid to Napoleon, 402. 

Theatre, position of, in the Re- 
public, 106. 

Tolerance, 52. 

Travel, mode of, in the Republic, 
83. 

Treaty of commerce with Amer- 
ica, discovered by the English, 
253. 

Trotz, professor of law in Frane- 
ker and Utrecht, 191. 

Union of Utrecht, 15. 

Universities, 109-112. 

Utrecht, Patriots in, 305; riots 
in, 376, 383; made advance 
post of Patriots, 390; surren- 
dered to Prussians, 394. 

Vauguyon, Paul Frangois de 
Guelon, Duke of, succeeds 
d'Aflfray as French ambassador 
in the Hague, 209; work of, in 
the Republic, 210. 

Veere, demands appointment of 
Stadholder, 130. 

Vlissingen, demands appoint- 
ment of Stadholder, 130. 

West Indian Company, origin of, 
70; during the last English war, 
270. 



Wyk - by - Duurstede, riots in, 
387. 

Wilhelmina, Frederica Wilhel- 
mina Sophia, daughter of Au- 
gust of Prussia, brother of 
Frederick the Great, marries 
William V, 171; arrives in the 
Hague, 172; daily life of, in the 
Hague, 295; goes to Holland, 
391 ; is stopped by the Patriots, 
392. 

William I, r61e of, in revolution 
against Spain, 14; death of, 
17. 

William IV, family and early 
youth of, 22; education of, 123; 
university studies of, 124; in- 
herits large German estates, 
125; appointed Stadholder, 
132; hereditary Stadholder, 
134; character of, 138; fails to 
institute desired reforms, 138; 
loss of popularity by, 139; 
death of, 140. 

William V, death of father of, 
142; death of mother of, 158; 
character and appearance of, 
164; Acte van Consulentschap, 
168; marries Frederica Wil- 
helmina Sophia of Prussia, 
171; his fear of Yorke, 208; 
informed of letters sent by 
the American delegates to 
the Raadpensionaris, 221; de- 
mands punishment of Amster- 
dam, 259; tries to fit out a fleet 
during the English war, 274; 
refuses to be assisted by re- 
sponsible ministry, 275; goes 



INDEX 



433 



to Texel, 275 ; refuses to dismiss 
the Duke of Brunswick, 277; 
temporary popularity after 
battle of Doggersbank, 282; 
daily life of, in the Hague, 290; 
influence of, with army and 
navy, 297; influence of, with 
clergy, 298; influence of, with 
lower classes, 298; in Zeeland, 
304; vainly attacks Patriotic 
newspapers, 335; loses part of 
his power in several cities, 343; 
fight on military jurisdiction, 
345; St. Nicholas riots, trouble 
of, W. in connection therewith, 
346, 347; sends troops to Rot- 
terdam, 368; defends Ade van 
Consulentschap, 370; asks Pa- 
triotic Free Corps to assist 
against Austria, 375; deprived 
of the command of the garri- 
son in the Hague, 384; leaves 
the Hague, 384; sends troops 
against Hattem and Elburg, 
388; asked to explain his con- 
duct by Estates of Holland, 
389; answer of, 389; deprived 
of commandership of troops of 
Holland, 390; goes to Amers- 
foort, 390; urged to return to 
Holland, 391; restoration and 
return of, to the Hague, 395; 



leaves the Republic, 400; death 
of, 400. 
Witt, de, Raadpensionaris of Hol- 
land, 38. 

Yorke, Sir Joseph, British repre- 
sentative in the Hague, 207; 
relations of, with Stadholder, 
208; with Regents, 209; re- 
fuses to listen to complaints 
about privateering, 213; com- 
plains about de Graeff, 216; 
asks Stadholder about Amer- 
ican correspondence, 221; asks 
support of Republic against 
France, 232; protests against 
presence of Jones in Texel, 
240; again warns the Republic, 
247; presents copy of captured 
papers of Laurens to the Stad- 
holder, 258; asks punishment 
of Amsterdam, 258; leaves the 
Hague, 264. 

Zeeberg, Adriaan van, Pension- 
aris of Haarlem, 34. 

Zeeland, Patriots in, 304. 

Zierikzee, asks about Acte van 
Consulentschap, 370. 

Zoutman, Johan Arnold, com- 
mands Dutch fleet at Doggers- 
bank, 281. 



CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 



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